Plastic-Free July

A fun holiday calendar is packed with different occasions to celebrate. Although more than a half of the month has already passed, there is still time to take up the challenge. With July declared a plastic-free month, the Szczecin Waterworks Company has taken this opportunity to help you lead a healthier and more eco-friendly life. More and more water drinkers in the city and healthy tap water in our homes offer the opportunity to eliminate plastic and join the global movement.

Plastic-free July is an international action – a movement that encourages millions of people to be part of the solution to the problem of plastic pollution on the planet. The initiative also provides a great opportunity to speak out more about the dangers arising from drinking bottled water. Scientists know more and more and are increasingly inclined to warn us about the nanoplastics that enter our bodies. All things considered, there are at least three important aspects in favour of drinking tap water: ecology, economy and health.

ECOLOGY

The Polish Zero Waste Association reports that:

• 25 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced each year in EU Member States, and only 30% is recycled

• A million of plastic bags are used worldwide every minute
• Plastic takes 450 years to decompose
• 90% of all waste polluting oceans is plastic waste

What you can do

Start with the simplest things. Take up the challenge and choose a steel or glass bottle instead of a disposable plastic one, carry your meals in your own packaging, and go shopping with your own bag.

The Szczecin Waterworks Company will help you lead a healthier and more eco-friendly life! There are at least three important aspects in favour of drinking tap water: ecology, economy and health.

We know that plastic packaging takes many years to decompose and pollutes our planet. Choosing reusable packaging is not only about saving money but also about taking care of the Earth.

These are the facts:

1. An adult should drink at least 1.5-2 litres of water a day.
2. Nearly 400,000 people live in Szczecin (the population status as at 30.06.2023) – more specifically, 390,300 people (source: Statistics Poland)
3. If half of our city’s population buys just one bottle of water a day, this will translate into 4,000 kg of plastic waste discarded into the environment daily! (An empty 0.5 litre bottle weighs about 20 g.)

We would like to remind you that tap water is the best alternative to bottled water. Glass bottles, bidons and other reusable containers allow us to eliminate further pollution of our planet.

ECONOMY

The figures are simple – 1 m3 of water corresponds to 1000 l. In Szczecin, we pay 6.12 grosz for 1000 litres of water. In stores, you can buy 3 bottles of water for the same amount.

HEALTH

The mineral content of our tap water is better than that of many popular spring and mineral waters. For example, one manufacturer quotes a value of 213 mg/l – twice as low as in our intakes.

 

AVEGARE VALUES OF SELECTED PARAMETERS PER SUPPLY ZONE – Q2 2024

 

Parameter	Unit	Intake zone – ZPW Miedwie	Intake zone – ZPW Pilchowo	Intake zone – ZPW Skowolin	Mixed water zone
pH	-	7.6	7.7	7.5	7.7
Water hardness	dH	13.7/245	18.8/336	10.3/184	16.3/291
Sodium	mg/l	26	18	19	22
Potassium	mg/l	6.2	2.2	2.1	4.2
Calcium	mg/l	90	135	72	113
Magnesium	mg/l	18	9.5	9.1	14
Sulphates	mg/l	108	102	<20	105
Chlorides	mg/l	49	26	9	38
Fluorides	mg/l	0.18	0.16	0.24	0.17
Carbohydrates	mg/l	165	256	238	211
Mineral content in total	mg/l	462	549	349	507

 

But what about the plastic? Researchers have confirmed that plastic particles invisible to a human eye are found in bottled water. What we cannot see is potentially hazardous to our health. Plastic migrating into our bodies does not bring anything good. In fact, there are already more and more scientific studies and materials released in the media, devoted to this topic. Not only the plastic bottle itself, but also opening and closing the bottle, can cause the release of harmful substances to our body. This is another argument in favour of choosing tap water which does not contain any such particles.

WHERE THE WATER IN OUR TAPS COMES FROM

We would like to remind you that nearly 90% of the water supplied to Szczecin comes from Miedwie – the fifth largest lake in Poland with an area of 3800 m2. It is 16.6 km long, 3.2 km wide and has a maximum depth of 43.5 m, to illustrate the size of the reservoir. Our intake is located on the western shore, 255 m from the shoreline, at a depth of 16-18 m from the water surface. Through two pipelines, each with a diameter of 1200 mm, the water flows into the pumping chambers through mechanical sieves retaining large solids, e.g., shells, fish or plants. The water is then transferred to a water treatment plant, situated 2.5 km away from the pumping station.

A number of procedures and processes take place at the Water Treatment Plant to ensure that the water reaching our taps is of the highest quality. The Szczecin tap water is, by no means, of an inferior quality to bottled water.

Which treatment procedures are applied to the water obtained from Miedwie?

• Pre-disinfection with ozone (O3),
• Coagulation,
• Sedimentation,
• Filtration through an anthracite-sand bed,
• Indirect oxidation with ozone (O3),
• Filtration through granular activated carbon bed,
• Final disinfection with chlorine dioxide (ClO2).

Once all these procedures, which we have outlined in brief, are completed, the water is directed into two movement tanks, with a capacity of 5000 m3 each. Then, it flows by gravity to Szczecin, 32 km away from Miedwie, via two water mains – the first with a diameter of 1200 mm and the second with a diameter of 700 mm. The first pipeline runs to the ZPW Pomorzany tanks from where the water, once it is again disinfected, is pumped into the city's left-bank water supply system. The second pipeline runs to the water pumping station in Kijewo from where the water is supplied to the right-bank part of Szczecin.

The entire water flow process is subject to constant monitoring. There is a laboratory at the intake, where the physiochemical and bacteriological parameters of the raw water are inspected daily. This is followed by individual production phases, and then the purified water is subject to the ultimate inspection. Overall, twenty-six parameters are tested daily, with more than 60 analyses performed in monthly terms.