Due to excessive fertilisation by agriculture and the release of untreated waste water and sewage, the Baltic Sea has been battling with substantial environmental damage.
In St. Petersburg a large-scale waste water project was initiated back in 2005. It is funded by the city in cooperation with the EU, the adjacent countries and with a fund specially set up to protect the Baltic Sea and the Barents Sea. The aim is to treat the waste water produced by the city and its 5 million inhabitants so that it is no longer harmful to the ecosystem of the Baltic Sea.
A sub-project of this enormous undertaking is the commissioning of a pump station in spring this year. With a depth of 92 metres, it is the deepest waste water and sewage pump station in Europe. It is the centrepiece of a twelve kilometre-long tunnel system via which stormwater and sewage will be transported to a waste water treatment plant. As soon as the pump station has started operation, 98 percent of the waste water in St. Petersburg will be fully treated.
KSB supplied 13 KRT pumps for the pump station as well as 6 drainage pumps, control units and frequency inverters which are currently being installed by the technical team on site. The pump sets transport the waste water during rain-free periods and drain the tunnel system after rainfall. The waste water is transferred from a depth of 92 metres into a channel from which it flows by gravity to the waste water treatment plant.
2013 is the official United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation and on 22 March was the 20th World Water Day. The World Water Day promotes the importance of water as the basis for human life both towards the public and towards politicians. The goal is to make people more aware of how we handle this valuable resource and to encourage everyone to use water resources sparingly and sustainably.
