Photo: (Volker Weihbold)
Those responsible therefore made an urgent appeal to all pool owners in the 3,800-strong community in the central area: all citizens were asked to stop filling the pool immediately. Only between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. should admission be continued – if at all. “Due to the currently increased pool fillings in the municipality, all alarm systems are currently sounding when the pressure increases. There is a risk of the water supply collapsing throughout the municipality,” says a message on the municipality’s website.
1.5 billion liters of drinking water
Buchkirchen is not the only one with the capacity problem: In many communities, there are bottlenecks in the spring due to the increased number of private pools. According to estimates, significantly more than 1.5 billion liters of drinking water end up in private swimming pools in Upper Austria alone every year. No one knows exactly how many there are in the state: At the last official census in 2017, there were around 60,000. In the meantime it should have become significantly more.
The example of Eberschwang shows how much the water consumption in rural communities increases with the approaching summer: In the 3800-inhabitant place in the Innviertel normally requires about 380 cubic meters of water per day. In spring it is up to 500 cubic meters a day. In order to cover this additional water requirement, two new wells and a pipe system had to be built. Cost: around one million euros.
There has been a pool tax in the municipality in the district of Ried im Innkreis for three years: On average, a pool owner who is pregnant with a boar has to pay an additional 54 euros per year to the municipality. The amount of the fee depends on the size of the pool.
Source: Nachrichten
