As drought wreaks havoc across Europe, the city of nearly two million people stands out. It does not envisage any rationing in the decades to come and for good reason: it has a jealously guarded treasure.
To discover it, you have to get lost in the south-east of this central European country, up to the mountains some 150 kilometers away.
Within the regions of Lower Austria and Styria, it is there that almost a century and a half ago, the metropolis acquired a sanctuary domain of 675 square kilometers, without agriculture, tourism or industry. .
At the time of global warming, it is a wealth that has become invaluable: 70 sources of crystalline purity gush out in profusion far from any soil pollution, on a territory of wild beauty, forbidden to the public.
– “Agape” –
“Some 10,000 liters come out per second and we take 560 for Vienna”, explains the guard Johannes Zöchling, “very proud” to watch over the most important of them in flow, called Kläffer, discovered at 655 meters above sea level. .
It comes to throw itself into a river called Salza, coiled in a deep valley, totally uninhabited.
Dug into the rock, a 90-meter tunnel leads to the majestic underground spring, with water at less than six degrees that will arrive directly in homes after minimal treatment in around 36 hours.
An ingenious transport system, made up entirely of 130 aqueducts, was set up at the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to overcome cholera.
“And all this without a single pump or the slightest CO2 emission”, specifies Astrid Rompolt, spokesperson for “Wiener Wasser”, the municipal water company.
The liquid “flows thanks to the natural slope”, a feat for the time, and even generates “a little hydraulic energy”.
“I remember that Chinese officials came to see this and were left speechless,” she smiles as she unveils one of the 31 Côte d’Azur reservoirs spread across the city, above which European hamsters frolic on their way of extinction.
At the other end of the pipelines, the Viennese are well aware of their comfort: this exceptional supply offers them unbeatable value for money.
They each consume 130 liters of running water per day – a figure in the European average – charged less than 30 euro cents, against 45 cents in Paris for example.
– Fountains and pools –
Enough to feed fountains, swimming pools and automatic watering without a bad conscience, while limiting the use of plastic bottles.
While a relentless sun sets in during the hot hours in the treeless avenues of the city center, residents and tourists alike have free access to 1,300 drinking water fountains and 175 misters.
The little ones have fun in aquatic play areas with artificial ponds and large grassy areas.
This is one of the elements that has earned Vienna several awards for its high quality of life, according to international rankings such as the one carried out by the “Economist Intelligence Unit”, which once again placed the city at the top of the podium. globally this year.
“It is out of the question to privatize this service of general interest”, says the assistant to the environment Jürgen Czernohorszky. “On the contrary, we are investing a lot of money for future generations”.
A strategy to 2050 has been adopted to adapt the growing city to sweltering summers. Vienna foresees a 15% increase in consumption and is thus renovating 30 kilometers of pipeline per year.
Access to drinking water has even been guaranteed there in the Constitution since 2001, a unique case in the world, boasts the municipality on its website.
