The coffee chain, which prides itself on being green, has a health and safety policy of leaving taps running in all of its 10,000 branches worldwide it has been revealed today.

The company policy prohibits staff from turning off a cold tap behind the counter called a 'dipper well'.

This means that Starbucks is wasting roughly 23.4 million litres of water on a daily basis. That's enough water to quench the thirst of the entire population of drought-stricken Namibia.

In Britain where there are just fewer than 700 branches of the coffee shop, 1.6 million litres are wasted every day.

Starbucks bosses claim that the flow of water stops germs from festering in the taps.

Peter Robinson of environmental charity Waste Water told The Sun: "Leaving taps running all day is a shocking waste of precious water. And to claim you are doing it for health and safety reasons is bonkers."

SOURCE