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The story
As early as Roman times, an approximately 20 to 30 km long water pipeline supplied the Roman military camp of Vindobona. It received its water from the streams on the eastern edge of the Vienna Woods. The exact source area is unknown. The last place of discovery is in the Liesing valley near Rodaun, which points to a use of waters of the Liesing catchment area. Although there are references in the literature to an origin of the water from the area of today's Perchtoldsdorf and Gumpoldskirchen on the thermal line, there is no concrete evidence or archaeological sites for this. Regarding the transport capacity of this pipeline, it is published that it could deliver four to eight million liters of water per day. This is considered sufficient to supply a settlement of about 20,000 people including animals according to the state of the art at that time, especially since there was also another pipeline from the area of Hernals (and probably also domestic wells). After the end of Roman rule, the underground pipeline system fell into disrepair and from the Middle Ages until the beginning of the 16th century, water needs were again met from domestic wells. Due to the clayey subsoil and the hygienic conditions of the time, the quality of the well water continuously deteriorated.
It was not until after the great fire in 1525 that the construction of a water distribution system was again considered, primarily to increase the fire-fighting water capacity. In 1562, the House of Habsburg was finally the first to receive its own water supply through the Siebenbrunn court water pipeline, which was built by order of King Ferdinand I. The water was collected in seven wells in Oberreinprechtsdorf (district part of Margareten) and piped in cast-iron pipes to a reservoir under the Augustinerbastei in Vienna, from where it was in turn forwarded to the Hofburg.
From 1565, the Hernalser Wasserleitung (Hernals water pipeline) finally also supplied fresh water for the population. Of the original 1,500 m3 per day, only 45 m3 later remained. The water was now sold from public wells by so-called watermen and waterwomen. Emperor Charles VI, on the other hand, had the water from Kaiserbrunn brought to him in tubs by water riders. From the spring, which the emperor discovered during a hunt, these transports took two and a half days each.
In the 17th century, the fountain at Neuer Markt, which was fed by a spring line, supplied the first parts of the city with fresh water by means of several smaller water pipes. This remained the only water supply system within Vienna until well into the 19th century. So-called waterers – they sold water from tanks on their horse-drawn carts, with which they drove through the city – and house wells continued to supply the majority of the population with water. In 1804, the then suburbs were also supplied with water for the first time thanks to the Albertine water pipeline from Hütteldorf, which was built under Albert of Saxe-Teschen. As pollution increased with the growth of the city, a cholera epidemic struck Vienna for the first time in 1830, killing around 2,000 people by December 1831.
Finally, between 1835 and 1841, Vienna's first area-wide water pipeline system was built: The Kaiser-Ferdinands-Wasserleitung, which brought 20,000 m3 of filtered Danube water into the city every day. The growth of the city soon overtaxed this system – only about four to five liters per day were possible for each inhabitant. Since the water was taken from the nearby Danube Canal, the water was not much purer than that from the domestic wells. Many cases of typhoid and cholera forced action.
In 1861, when seven times the amount of what the Emperor Ferdinand's water pipeline supplied was already needed, there was a public tender in the Wiener Zeitung for a new water supply system. The winning bid was the project of Eduard Suess, a Viennese geologist and municipal councillor, and his associate Carl Junker, which included a 120 km long long pipeline, water reservoirs and a distribution system. The Vienna Council approved the project on 12 July 1864.
Construction work began in 1870. Only three years later, the line running from the Rax-Schneeberg region of Lower Austria along the Thermenlinie to Vienna, the First Vienna Mountain Spring Pipeline was completed and opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I on the occasion of the Vienna World's Fair on 24 October 1873, as Europe's largest water pipeline. To commemorate this construction, the high-jet fountain was erected in Vienna on Schwarzenbergplatz. At the same time, the elevated tanks on Rosenhügel, Schmelz, Wienerberg and Laaerberg were built.
As early as 1888, 90% of the residential buildings in Vienna at that time were connected to the network, which meant that the majority of the approximately 900,000 inhabitants could be supplied with clean drinking water. Every floor had a faucet with a vitreous enamel – the bassena, which is still present in many houses of that time.
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On 6 November 1896 the first pumping station in Vienna, the Breitensee pumping station at Hütteldorfer Strasse 142, was put into operation.
After a long legal dispute, the Wienerwaldsee was constructed in Untertullnerbach between 1895 and 1898 by the Belgian Compagnie des Eaux de Vienne, Societé anonyme. The water treated in the Wientalwasserwerk was sold as utility water to the city of Vienna, which resold it to various customers. In 1958, the city of Vienna acquired the waterworks and, after appropriate modifications, used it as a drinking water plant until 2004. Today, the Wiental reservoir serves as a retention basin – in other words, as a rainwater retention basin.
Due to the rapid development of the city, the water supplied by the first high-spring pipeline was soon no longer sufficient. Therefore, already at the beginning of the 20th century, under Mayor Karl Lueger, the II. Vienna high spring line was built. This is fed by springs in the Hochschwab Mountains and was also opened by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1910.
The deep wells in the Lobau have existed since 1966 and are used in special cases or in the event of exceptionally high water consumption. The water is bank filtrate from the Danube, which is somewhat harder than spring water due to the long flow time underground.
In the 1970s, groundwater lakes were developed in the eastern Vienna Basin, the Mitterndorfer Senke. However, because of groundwater lake contamination, including from the former Fischer landfill, this water has to be treated. The many tests and procedures took until 2004, so they have only been supplying water since 2006.
Drinking Fountains
As of 2023, the city of Vienna operates approximately 1,000 public drinking fountains, ensuring free access to high-quality spring water across the city. Among these are around 100 mist or spray fountains that provide cooling relief during hot summer days. In addition, Vienna is home to 55 monumental fountains, which not only serve decorative purposes but are often historical landmarks integrated into the cityscape. The drinking fountains are part of Vienna's longstanding commitment to sustainable urban infrastructure and public health.
From Wikipedia’s article on Water supply in Vienna, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3