Supply concept: Berlin´s drinking water in adequate supply and of the highest quality

Berliner Wasserbetriebe and the Berlin Senate have drawn up a water supply concept for the capital up to the year 2040. It ensures that Berlin will continue to be able to supply itself from its own resources in the future.

Various scenarios of demographic, economic, hydrological and climatic changes are considered and evaluated. Minimum flow rates must be maintained in the Spree and Havel rivers in order to ensure the extraction of the groundwater from bank-filtered river water. In addition to the required volume, the quality of the incoming Spree water must also be assured. This necessitates e.g. the modernisation of the separate and mixed wastewater system and the introduction of a fourth treatment stage in wastewater plants.

Ten waterworks will again be in operation in the future

What is new is that Berlin’s drinking water will be supplied by ten instead of nine waterworks, as has been the case to date. A new waterworks is to be built by 2014 in place of the Johannisthal waterworks, which since 2001 has been used only for groundwater management and rehabilitation, and as an intermediate pumping station. The associated distribution of the delivery guarantees the long-term stability of the supply and creates the necessary scope for ecological groundwater management.

Water protection areas will be reduced

Apart from the water supply, the Wulheide and Johannisthal waterworks are also operated to ensure settlement-compatible groundwater levels in this region. In return, the former waterworks Altglienicke, Buch and Jungfernheide which were shut down in 1993, 1997 and 2001 respectively will be given up and the protection area ordinances cancelled. This will make life easier for people living close by due to the lifting of prohibitions and regulations . In the long term it will also reduce costs and thus serve to achieve a socially compatible tariff development.