Water Supply in Northwest Germany

Our regional water supplier, the OOWV, supplies 13 regional districts in Lower Saxony with fresh drinking water and is responsible for sewage treatment in some muncipalities.

The following steps are important for water treatment: The first step is to pump groundwater from various wells in the surrounding area into the waterworks. There it is ventilated in a tank called “Riesler”, which oxidises the iron. Afterwards, the iron is filtered out, which also has the side effect of partly deacidifying and hardening the water. In a second filter, manganese removal, deacidification and hardening take place. At the end, the water is deacidified in a second “Riesler” and nutrients are added so that it can be used by the consumer.

Because of human action there is a pollution of our groundwater , for example through fertilisers in agriculture. These contain nitrates, which can lead to health issues if the concentration in the drinking water is too high (>50 ppm). To prevent this, the water must be filtered more often, which makes drinking water more expensive.