Forward-looking planning for a growing tourist industry
The island destination of Usedom shows how future-proof and sustainable the decision can be for a well-thought-out waste water system. Even 18 years ago, the supervisory association could see that island conditions coupled with growing popularity among tourists would lead to high demands being placed on the waste water system.The Isle of Usedom, situated in the Pomeranian Bay in the South Baltic Sea, is Germany’s second largest island at 445 km². An average of 1,900 hours of sunlight per year means that Usedom is often Germany’s most sun-blessed area, and more tourists flock to the island each year as a result.
Individual solutions for seasonal challenges
The supervisory association for water supply and sewage disposal has registered a tripling in the island’s population over the summer months, and a consequent increase of up to 70 % in the volume of sewage produced. The island’s leaders are well aware that all planned infrastructure measures must be able to accommodate seasonal requirements. In this regard, the sewage volumes are closely associated with residents’ and tourists’ user behaviour. As a result, both the sewer system and pumping stations must always have capacity to deal with the maximum sewage quantities and increased amounts of solids. Together with Wilo as systems partner, the island’s leaders opted for an economical, needs-based solution focused on pressure drainage. On the German side, the sophisticated waste water system comprises 13 Wilo pumps stations with reliable solids separation systems. All pumps stations had to be precisely designed and constructed to cope with the predicted inlet flows and established inflow depth.
Manfred Schultz, of the Usedom supervisory association for water and sewage, added: “Wilo has absolutely been the right decision for us.”
No malfunctions in 18 years – a convincing argument
The system as a whole ensures reliable sewage transport – the result of logical system design including long-term measurements at various collection points. In this way, the supervisory association obtained guide values for calculating the required system capacities, such as the average per-capita water consumption and the associated inlet flows. “With Wilo, we deliberately opted for a partner renowned for reliable solids separation systems. It was important for us to choose a partner who could apply their sewage expertise to custom-design systems and precisely tailor them to our island’s specific sewage structure. This worked out in practice just as we imagined. Today, we can say that the solids separation system on Usedom has been entirely problem-free for 18 years. That is economical for us and, of course, makes planning very secure”, said Manfred Schultz of the Usedom supervisory association for water and sewage.