Business
The Grazerfeld Southeast water association is investing in two new wells and can significantly increase its drinking water supply capacities. Approval has already been granted and the wells are scheduled to go into operation in 2024.
The metropolitan area around Graz has grown significantly in recent years, which means that the demands on the water supply have also increased. The Grazerfeld Southeast water association currently supplies around 24,000 residents in six communities with drinking water via a 287-kilometer transport network, but recently the demand could hardly be met, so that some water had to be bought in.
Previous wells over 40 years old
As early as 2015, the water association commissioned a feasibility study, according to a broadcast, and at the end of 2017 a pumping test was finally started in the Thondorfer Au. “More than four years later, the legally binding water law notice for the construction of two new wells in the municipality of Gössendorf has now arrived,” confirms Dietmar Luttenberger, Managing Director of the Grazerfeld Southeast water association.
According to Gerald Wonner, Mayor of Gössendorf, the agreement with the property owners was not a problem. These are mainly farmers who grow vegetables in the Thondorfer Au area and are therefore also dependent on water as a resource.
Commissioning planned from 2024
The water board is currently in the process of tendering for companies that will then be commissioned to construct the wells. Construction is scheduled to start next winter, and according to the water association, the construction time will be around one and a half years. The wells are scheduled to go into operation in mid-2024.
Johann Lendl, chairman of the Grazerfeld Southeast Water Association, speaks of a “milestone in the history of the association”, because the new wells would significantly increase the supply capacities: “The two new wells in the municipality of Gössendorf will guarantee a withdrawal volume of around 60 liters of water from mid-2024 per second. They thus deliver almost twice the capacity of the previous wells constructed in 1975. With appropriate
We can currently extract around 32 liters of water per second from groundwater levels.”