New Tettau waterworks officially put into operation

Tettau. This morning, 4th May, the new Tettau waterworks in the German state of Brandenburg was officially put into operation. REMONDIS Aqua GmbH & Co. KG and the Lausitz Water Association had sent out joint invitations to many people from the world of politics, administration and business to join in the official celebrations. The official opening speech was held by Dr Dietmar Woidke, Minister for Rural Development, the Environment and Consumer Protection in the State of Brandenburg.

The Tettau waterworks supplies people living in the south of Brandenburg with top quality drinking water. REMONDIS Aqua sources its water from the reservoir in the Lausitz “Urstrom Valley” which it then processes into drinking water. The old waterworks, which had been built in 1955, had been shut down and the new plant built on the same site with state-of-the-art technology to guarantee that the region can continue to be supplied with high quality water long into the future.

Water supply in the Lausitz region
The Tettau waterworks is one of the largest waterworks in the state of Brandenburg - and is now also one of the most modern of its kind in Europe. The internationally active service provider, REMONDIS Aqua, is now responsible - via a subsidiary - for both the technical and business operations of the waterworks as well as for the other water supply and wastewater treatment facilities in the region. Each year, REMONDIS will be supplying the region with around 10 million cubic metres of drinking water and covering, therefore, the needs of approx. 120,000 individuals and numerous companies in 25 towns and districts. Furthermore, REMONDIS will be supplying neighbouring water associations with top quality water as well as industrial and commercial businesses in the states of Brandenburg and Saxony. 

Top quality drinking water
Andreas Bankamp, managing director of REMONDIS Aqua, stressed that the water will continue to be of the same high quality in the future, too. He commented, “This is the reason why the decision was taken to build a completely new waterworks.” The Tettau water processed by REMONDIS has a sodium content of, on average, 15 mg per litre making it particularly suitable for a low sodium diet. As the water is of such high quality, it is also used by the food producer, Sachsenmilch, to make high quality dairy products such as yoghurt and rice pudding. Sachsenmilch is based in the region and is a subsidiary of the Müller Milch Group, one of the leading dairy businesses. As the natural source of the Tettau water is also germ-free, neither chlorine nor other disinfectants need to be added. All REMONDIS needs to do is reduce the iron and manganese content of the water.

The official start of the new waterworks
The Tettau waterworks was built on the old site over a period of 18 months. The investment amount: 10 million euros. 5 million euros was provided as a grant by the State of Brandenburg and the European Union. “State and EU funds should also be used to ensure that the financial burden on citizens as well as on industrial and commercial businesses which are already established here or wish to move here can be kept at a reasonable level,” explained the Minister of the Environment, Dr Woidke, in his official opening speech. At the end of the speech, Norbert Rethmann, Chairman of the supervisory board of RETHMANN AG & Co. KG (to which REMONDIS also belongs), welcomed the guests and stressed just how important water resources management was for the company group.

The technology
The Tettau water comes from the depths of the Lausitz “Urstrom Valley” and is transported via Germany’s largest horizontal well as well as via 36 vertical wells. Powerful pumps transport the water from depths of 20 to 30 metres below ground - on average 23,000 cubic metres a day. In the new waterworks, REMONDIS Aqua processes the ground water into drinking water using aeration, adding lime water, sedimentation and filtration.
The drinking water is then transported to the consumers via a pipe network covering more than 1,400 kilometres.

Background information
With its 18,600 employees, REMONDIS is one of the world’s largest privately run water and environmental service companies serving around 20 million people. REMONDIS Aqua has been responsible for water resources management within the REMONDIS Group for 25 years and has proven to be a competent business partner within water supply and wastewater treatment for both municipalities and industrial companies. Within the water management sector, REMONDIS Aqua works for, among others, BASF Coatings, Lorenz Snack World and Pilkington Automotive. Furthermore, associations, towns and districts both in Germany and abroad have put their trust in REMONDIS’ services - in Turkey alone, REMONDIS supplies 4 million people with drinking water via its subsidiary.

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