Water for the Future

What’s under the surface?

Taking a shower, doing the laundry and washing the dishes: in Germany, each person uses around 127 liters of water per day. For decades, Hoyerswerda’s drinking water was mainly supplied by Schwarze Pumpe. It worked like this: To be able to mine the brown coal in the Lusatian region, some of the groundwater first had to be pumped out. The water extracted from the ground was then treated so that it could be used as drinking water. However, this process became increasingly costly and the water supply to Hoyerswerda was ultimately discontinued on December 31, 2022.

Since January 2023, the water from Schwarze Pumpe has therefore no longer been available. A solution had to be found to continue to ensure the security of supply. This is where one of the first structural change projects came into play – the expansion of the Zeißig waterworks. The main objective was to increase the daily supply capacity from 8,600 m³ to 11,500 m³. This corresponds to the increased drinking water demand of around 40,000 inhabitants. The work began in April 2022.

A stable drinking water supply was guaranteed throughout the construction phase. The waterworks could – or were allowed to be – taken out of service during an extremely short period of only a few weeks in November and December. Here, drinking water was supplied by LEAG to Hoyerswerda. The work on the plant was essentially an open-heart surgery. As planned, the waterworks in Zeißig have been back in operation since the end of December 2022 to supply the city of Hoyerswerda with water. This translates into remarkable achievement within a demanding construction period from April to December 2022.

The expansion of the Zeißig waterworks is part of the overall technical concept of the “Lausitzer Region Drinking Water Association” which consists of six water suppliers in Saxony and Brandenburg. The plan is for several existing waterworks to supply the various municipalities, including the city of Hoyerswerda, with water in the future. This is intended to secure not only the drinking water supply for the private sector but also the service water supply for the economic sector in the long term.

Urban society is also invited to do its part in ensuring a secure supply of drinking water: doing laundry using the eco-program, collecting and using rainwater or using an eco shower head – there are plenty of ways for us to save water without sacrificing comfort.

Facts and figures