The taste is the same, the color too. But the drinking water for residents of Beilen and the surrounding area has been slightly different since this week. They get their water from a brand new factory. Water company WMD has worked for four years on the development and construction of the purification plant, which is equipped with the latest technologies.
The factory is located right next to the old purification station, which dates from 1946. “We still produced excellent water there,” says Joris Grotenhuis, production manager at WMD. “But the effort to maintain everything increased. So it is an appropriate time to put the new treatment plant into use.”
WMD will provide water to approximately fifteen thousand households in Central Drenthe from the factory. The station is not yet fully operational. The softening part, a new part, has yet to be put into operation.
WMD made the softening filters in its own workshop and will soon provide softer water. “The hardness of water remains an emotional thing,” says Grotenhuis. “Nowhere in Drenthe is the water really hard. But we hope that softening will produce less limescale. So less cleaning.”
People from Friesland will also drink Drenthe water from the new factory.
Grotenhuis: “We are going to supply two million cubic meters of water per year to Terwisscha. We have constructed a 21 kilometer long pipeline for this purpose.” It is a collaboration with Vitens. The Frisian water company is scaling down extraction in Terwisscha to prevent damage to nature in the Drents-Friese Wold, a Natura 2000 area. “But there remains enough water for the households in Beilen,” Grotenhuis says.
WMD hopes to enjoy the new water factory for a few decades. “With the robustness and quality with which we have built it, I expect that we can use this station for thirty to forty years.”