2023-05-14 11:42:44
Mountain spring water has been flowing into Viennese households since 1873. It was to take around eleven years before the first 95-kilometre-long Viennese high spring pipeline might become a reality following a construction decision in November 1862. The construction period itself lasted only four years. The most important pioneer of the project is Eduard Suess (1831-1914), a Viennese geoscientist who is often referred to as the “father of modern geology”. He carried out the preparatory work that led to the decision that the Kaiserbrunnen in the Rax-Schneeberg area was chosen as the best solution for future water supply.
Even before that, there had already been initial attempts at an alternative to domestic wells, which were becoming increasingly disease-causing, and the not exactly high-quality Danube water. However, the first “Albertine aqueduct”, which was operated from 1804 to 1890, was not even close enough for a nationwide supply.
Second high spring line opened in 1910
After the first mountain spring water pipeline, a second followed in 1910. While the first high spring pipeline mainly carries its water from the Schneeberg, the Rax and the Schneealpe to Vienna, the second gets its freight from the Hochschwab massif and carries it 180 kilometers to the federal capital in 36 hours. The two headwaters extend over an area of over 600 square kilometers and are therefore significantly larger than the “motherland” Vienna with only over 400 square kilometers.
From these areas, the water reaches the capital via tunnels and aqueducts with natural gradients, first it ends up in water reservoirs and then it is fed into the city’s pipe network. There are currently 29 containers in Vienna and two containers in Moosbrunn and Neusiedl/Steinfeld in operation. The total storage volume is around 1.6 million cubic meters, i.e. 1.6 billion liters of water, according to the strategy paper of the Vienna city government called “Wiener Wasser 2050”.
Total volume not exhausted
This is a long way from using the total volume, the current average water requirement of 390,000 cubic meters (390 million liters) per day is around a quarter of this maximum volume. The total water consumption of the city of Vienna has declined over the past 40 years and, according to the information, has fallen from 150 liters per person per day to 130 liters. This has to do with large investments in the pipe network, as well as with increasingly water-saving devices in the household and last but not least with the stop buttons on the toilet.
According to the city’s paper published in March 2022, the high storage volume is still needed in order to be able to react to changes in water consumption. To ensure long-term security of supply, around 30 kilometers of water pipes in Vienna are renewed every year, around one percent of the total length of the pipe network. Overall, the City of Vienna owns around a third of the approximately 90,000 hectares of spring protection forests from which the water for the federal capital flows. In addition to Hirschwang and Nasswald, this also includes the Wildalpen area.
Gradient used for hydroelectric power
The difference in altitude between Bergen and the federal capital ensures that mountain spring water only flows to Vienna with the help of natural gradients. The MA13 – Wiener Wasser has been using this since the beginning of the 20th century to generate climate-neutral energy in the form of hydropower. In the meantime, 16 power plants along the two high spring lines and in Vienna are supplying around 65 million kilowatt hours of electricity, which, according to MA13, roughly corresponds to the electricity requirements of Wiener Neustadt.
The 17th hydroelectric power station is under construction in Döbling near the Hungerberg water reservoir and is scheduled for completion in 2024. A photovoltaic system on the Unterlaa water tank also supplies 600 Viennese households with solar energy. Photovoltaic systems are installed on the Schafberg water tank in Vienna-Hernals and on the Moosbrunn water tank (Lower Austria).
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