2023-06-25 05:24:57
While the drought hits many parts of the world, Vienna does not fear the arrival of summer. The Austrian capital has in fact set up an ingenious system more than a century ago which gives it access to pure, abundant water at a lower cost.
In the streets of Vienna, 175 misters and more than 1,300 drinking water fountains are available to residents to refresh themselves. The Austrian capital does not envisage any rationing of drinking water in the decades to come and for good reason: it has an invaluable treasure.
For more than a hundred years, a spring water distribution channel has provided the city with drinking water. At a time of climate change, Vienna wishes more than ever to preserve this heritage.
Alpine springs
In Kaiserbrunn, regarding a hundred kilometers south-west of the Austrian capital Kaiserbrunn’s 70 drinking water sources are redirected to reservoirs in the Viennese conurbation. [imagebroker/Handl – Imago]nne, there is no industry, no shops and there is almost no tourism. Everything is done to preserve the 70 sources of drinking water that are found in this area acquired by Vienna more than a century ago.
The Kaiserbrunnquelle is the first Alpine source to supply the city of Vienna with water and continues to do so 150 years later. “This drinking water comes from precipitation, whether it is rain in summer or snow in winter,” explains Hans Tobler, of the municipal water company Wiener Wasser, on Monday in the program Tout un monde.
“Precipitation settles on the surface of the mountain and this earth, this layer of humus, allows a first natural filtration. After having infiltrated this soil, the water seeks its way through the mountain. We then carry out a control in several stages”, he continues.
A channel in pente
The water then leaves this space to begin its journey to Vienna, where it will join one of the 31 reservoirs of the agglomeration, according to an ingenious system set up under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which emits no CO2 emission.
“Water from the Alps has a great advantage: it can come to the gates of Vienna without pumping. The whole system has been designed in a very ingenious way with a continuous slope”, explains Hans Tobler.
“The distribution channel was built from 1870 to 1873 by more than 10,000 workers. The pipe and the altitude were calculated very precisely to be able to reach Vienna as high as possible so that the water might be distributed from the reservoirs to consumers, once more by gravity,” he continues.
At the end of this chain, it is the two million Viennese men and women who benefit from it. They each consume 130 liters of running water per day, for a very affordable price.
Surplus water
The Wiener Wasser has a device for measuring water quality online. “This allows us, if necessary, to select the spring water that we take”, explains Hans Tobler.
This sorting can be done because the distribution system provides the city with more than enough water. “The quantity available is much greater than that which the city of Vienna needs”, confirms Hans Tobler. “The Kaiserbrunn spring currently has a flow rate of around 1,000 liters per second and we are currently only sending half of that to Vienna.”
The exceptional quality of this water is one of the elements that allows Vienna to be regularly designated as the most pleasant city in the world, which is a delight for its inhabitants. “As a Viennese, I feel really grateful to have such a system,” enthused Mina, a resident of the city.
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As for Thomas, he is well aware of the luck that the inhabitants of the capital have in comparison with the rest of the country. “In the west of Austria, people already have to think regarding how to irrigate their fields and firefighters bring water to places where there is not enough,” he explains.
“So it’s extremely valuable not to have to wonder how to get clean water and to have this situation of self-sufficiency,” continues the Viennese.
In the streets of Vienna, 175 foggers and more than 1,300 drinking water fountains are available to the inhabitants to refresh themselves. [Lisi Niesner – Archyde.com]
Plan for the future
At the time of climate change, part of the population is nevertheless worried regarding the future. “The glaciers are melting, there will be less and less water and I wonder what the situation will be in the future, if my baby will also have this when he is an adult”, Mina is alarmed.
Vienna is preparing to face these challenges. The Municipality has adopted a strategy up to 2050, which expects a 15% increase in consumption due to the growth of the city and global warming.
In order to continue to guarantee access to water in the decades to come, without the need to ration it, Vienna has devised a two-part plan.
“We plan on the one hand to better use and optimize the sources that supply water to Vienna and on the other hand to significantly increase the storage capacities”, explains Jürgen Czernohorszky, Deputy for the Environment for the Municipality. “In addition to that, we invest tens of millions of euros every year to renovate the pipes so as not to have any losses,” he continues.
For more than twenty years, access to drinking water has even been guaranteed in the city’s Constitution, to ensure that this service will remain public.
Radio subject: Isaure Hiace
Web adaptation: Emilie Délétroz
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