If you’ve ever been given the advice that you should never drink tap water while staying in a different place, you can forget that rule when in Vienna. The capital city of Austria is mighty proud of its tap water and with good reasons – the city’s water comes from the mountain springs flowing from two water pipelines around the Styrian/Lower Alps region. The first pipeline encompasses the mountains around Schneeberg, Rax and Schneealpe and the second pipeline zone comes from the Hochschwab Massif. The water flows through natural galleries such that the water that comes down to the city needs no artificial treatment. Moreover, because of the acceleration by which the water travels from the high altitudes down to the slopes and into the city pipes, the by-product is 65 million kilowatt hours of electric power generated from the hydroelectric power stations. Small wonder Vienna has been named one of the most livable and sustainable cities in the world.
The Viennese water is a marvel on its own that the city has built cultural memorial places so that more people will know about it when they come to visit the city. In Favoriten there is the 15,000 square meter Water Tower Water playground which is both an amusement park and an informative simulation of how mountain spring water flows to Vienna. Inside you can also find the historic Water Tower which symbolizes the age of industrial historicism in Vienna. Lastly there is the Springwater Museum Wildaplen in Styria which chronicles the development of the process by which spring water is harnessed and brought to the city.
