Because of the big flood water has a special meaning to Dresden. Since the beginning of the public drinking supply in Dresden the Elbe is and will be a very important basis. The water of the Elbe is filtered or enriched by the waterworks Saloppe, Tolkewitz and Hosterwitz before it comes into the public reservoir. Ca. 70% of the drinking water supply is provided by the river dams Lehnmühle and Klingenberg in the east ore mountains. The water of the river dams is treated in the waterwork Coschütz. To ensure that enough water comes to all districts, the drinking water network (with 1508 km) shares into 29 parts. At 24 locations are reservoires with totaly content of 215,000 m³ at work. In 29 main stations are 22 pumping station to provide the drinking water.
Before 1875 Dresden was supported with water by many little private springs. But the growing industry and the growing number of inhabitants made a waterwork with more capacity necessary, because the quality was to low. Because of that the first waterwork was build. In the end 1880 the maximum capacity was not enough to support all people. So the second waterwork in Dresden-Tolkewitz was build. The usage of water increased and a third waterwork was necessary. It was called Hosterwitz.
The waterwork Tolkewitz was build in 1896. In 1898 the last machines were build and the work in Tolkewitz begann. In the next 3 years a doubling of the capacity was necesary. Because of the growing number of inhabitants, the environment and the industry, the work was provided 9 times in the years 1913 untill 1984 with new technologys and plants. In 1995 the work was stopped for redevelopment, because of the old technology and a stagnating waterusage. In February 2002 the work was reopened.
In 1908 Hans Erlwein build the third waterwork for Dresden. It's called Hosterwitz. 20 years later, in 1928 the waterwork was enlarged. Because of that the waterwork had a new capacity of 50,000m³ per day. In 1983 a second enlarging was necesary, because of a high waterusage. The aim was a watersupply of 80,000m³ per day. Because of a stagnating waterusage there was enough money available for new technology. With this enlargings it was possible for the Drewag to supply water in a high quality. Because of that the Drewag is the top waterprovider for Dresden.
The Drewag is the biggest water-, electricity-, natural gas- and heatsupplier. The waterdepartment of the Drewag had the main task to produce water which is very healthy. The "food number 1" is supervised in chemical and microbiological methods. The waterlab in Dresden-Coschütz had the task that the water doesn't hurt during a lifelong usage. Its very dificult, because there are only some natural waterreservoirs in Germany. The team in the lab are 30 excellent educated workers. They scrutinize 60 water samples to 310 parameter. The work of that team is 12000 untill 16000 water samples per year. The team scrutinizes with chemical and physical methodes. They are looking for the effect of the contents in the water. Because of that the Drewag is the intermediary agent for water in Dresden.
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