Warsaw’s swimming pools water goes for street cleaning

Wringing out two uses out of the same resource before sending it down the drains

Do you know where the water used for rinsing the streets of Warsaw comes from? Apparently, from the city’s municipal pools. The official website of the Polish capital reminded us of that good practice for water re-usage by using the occasion to also bring up some stats.

And if you’re wondering how much water was “donated” by the pools to the cleaning services this year alone – it was 1.6 million litres. All that liquid was enough to fill up 170 vehicles of the street cleaning department, rather than sending it directly to the drains.

Second life for used water

This summer in parts of Europe, we were sorely reminded that water is a finite and precious resource and the one that is often the first victim to climate change.

“In the age of climate change, water is a special good. The municipal services in Warsaw, which joined forces with municipal sports centres, also remember about ecology in their daily work. The City Cleaning Authority is still looking for ways to save resources while maintaining high standards of cleanliness. We can see the success of such activities, and the water recycling campaign has met with great recognition among the inhabitants of not only Warsaw,” says Tadeusz Jaszczołt, director of the City Cleaning Authority of Warsaw.

The action itself was carried out during technological breaks when for maintenance reasons it is necessary to drain the pools. This year, 7 sports centres joined the eco-initiative of the City Cleaning Authority which works on 1300 kilometres of streets in the city.

This is the third time that the Municipal Water Treatment Authority has carried out the water recovery action, thus contributing to the capital's campaign called "Respect water - spin, collect, save". In total, 6.5 million litres of the precious liquid have been reused in water recycling in the last three years - as much as two Olympic swimming pools can hold.