View into a sewer
© dpa
After three and a half years of construction, the new sewage pumping station in Charlottenburg is ready.
The fully automated plant on Sophie-Charlotten-Straße went into operation on Monday, according to Berliner Wasserbetriebe (BWB). The new pumping station is directly opposite the old plant, which still had to be staffed. From now on, all 163 wastewater pumping stations in the capital will be monitored and controlled fully automatically from a distance.
The pumping station in Charlottenburg is the second largest in Berlin after the one in neighbouring Wilmersdorf. Here, six pumps convey the wastewater of around 110,000 residents preferably to the Ruhleben sewage treatment plant. The new plant also includes a 7,000 cubic metre wastewater storage tank, which is intended to prevent the wastewater from overflowing into the Spree River during heavy rains. According to BWB, the construction cost 60 million euros.