In addition to Lord Mayor Frank Klingebiel, the two managing directors of WEVG, Rainer Krause and Thorsten Zink, as well as representatives of the construction companies were also present.
The majority of the work will be completed by the end of 2016 and the supply of drinking water in the "soft" hardness range can begin in Salzgitter. The supplier will be Harzwasserwerke (the largest water supplier in Lower Saxony). The contract will run for 20 years.
The soft water comes from the Granetalsperre reservoir near Langelsheim and the Eckertalsperre reservoir below the Brocken. Before the changeover, a survey of households in Salzgitter was carried out in 2012 together with a description of the advantages and disadvantages. The majority of residents were in favor of soft water.
As is known, the previous upstream supplier of drinking water, Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH (SZFG), has decided to give up the operation of the water transport network that connects SZFG's wells with the WEVG local network. This business area was offered to WEVG.
The planning of the new water transport network, which WEVG will build and later operate, has shown that some pipes in the existing transport network can be used for the new network due to their location. New pipes will be pulled into these lines using a relining process.
The transport lines to the Harzwasserwerke network that are still required will be newly built. Only at two smaller feed-in points in the north and south of Salzgitter will the Harz water be routed through a section of the Peine water board's transport network from 2016. This will save the construction of around 10 kilometers of new pipeline.
