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On Friday 16 June 2023, the Syndicat des Eaux du Barrage d'Esch-sur-Sûre (SEBES) inaugurated its new water treatment plant in the presence of His Royal Highness the Grand Duke, the Minister of the Interior, Taina Bofferding, and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, Joëlle Welfring.
The largest drinking water project in the history of the Grand Duchy has been completed. Initiated in early 2015, the new Eschdorf station aims to meet the increased need for drinking water in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Water consumption is increasing on average each year by 1.93%, knowing that 90% of the country's population is supplied directly or indirectly by SEBES. Financed 50% by the State and 50% by municipalities, this project is thus the guarantee of a supply of drinking water of excellent quality and in sufficient quantity nationally.
From the start of the project study, cost monitoring was carried out quarterly by the SEBES office and the monitoring committee set up by the SEBES committee, and even the support committee set up by the financing law. The estimated cost of the project reported at the level of the construction index of October 2014 of €207 million (excl. VAT) will not be exceeded.
“We are happy to be able to inaugurate the new water treatment plant in Eschdorf this afternoon and thus supply the members of SEBES through our network. This is a project of major importance to the G.D of Luxembourg, allowing us to achieve our main objective: to guarantee the long-term supply of the country with drinking water, of good quality, and in sufficient quantity at the national level" , declared Laurent Deville, President of SEBES.
The 110,000 m3/day of water from the Esch-sur-Sûre dam lake that can be treated in the new station undergoes treatment in 7 stages:
1. prefiltration to retain algae larger than 0.1mm,
2. ultrafiltration-type membrane filtration combined with iron flocculation allowing less than one virus in a million to pass through,
3. a hardness increase step to make the water more easily mixes with water from members' sources,
4. ozonation to remove any pesticide and drug residues,
5. bio-filtration to reduce the organic matter content likely to create biofilms,
6. adsorption on activated carbon to adsorb micropollutants, and
7. final UV disinfection.
At the end of the treatment, the water meets the strict quality criteria of drinking water intended for human consumption. It is distributed via the Eschdorf reservoir to SEBES water users through the supply network of approximately 190 km.
The new administrative building has offices for 25 SEBES staff, a laboratory for daily monitoring of the quality of the water produced, social premises for the staff, meeting rooms and a thematic circuit around the water to make the general public aware of using drinking water sparingly.
