Salzburg plans water investments as dry spells lengthen

Salzburg expects to have enough drinking water through 2050, but longer dry spells and rising consumption will require investment in the supply network and could lead to higher water charges, ORF reported. Water currently costs an average of 1.53 euros net per 1,000 litres across the state.

State councillor Maximilian Aigner said the previous year had shown that more investment was needed. Local water cooperatives would decide how to fund it, but investment would be necessary in the coming years.

One priority is to connect the many water cooperatives more closely so they can supply one another when needed. Dominik Rosner, head of the state’s water department, said the issue could be solved, but further investment in links between supply systems was required.

Private swimming pools were among the main sources of pressure on supplies this year, alongside farms at higher elevations. A pool filling uses about as much water as one person consumes in an average year. Suppliers have tried to coordinate pool filling in their communities and have called for water conservation when needed, but the measures have had limited success.

The state does not intend to intervene in local decisions. Aigner said it wanted to support residents rather than lecture them. Rosner said how many pools Salzburg could accommodate depended on the region. Pool filling and garden watering should take lower priority, he said, and supplies could not always be guaranteed when many people filled their pools at once, as happened around Pentecost.

Higher-elevation farms also face supply challenges, and many rely on their own water. On the Schwarzeck Alm, an alpine pasture in Unken, farmer Klaus Vitzthum invested in a float-operated watering trough for livestock. It releases only enough water to fill the trough, then refills it as animals drink. Vitzthum said he had not worried about water for his animals this year for the first time.

The 15 farmers on the Schwarzeck Alm invested 80,000 euros in the system, with some support from the state. Vitzthum, who chairs the Zell am See district farmers’ association, said the funding was crucial and called for support to help farms prepare for next summer. The state said farmers had increasingly sought grants to improve their water supplies.

Salzburg has 617 million cubic metres of available water resources, of which about 12 percent is used on average across the state. There are significant regional differences: the lower Salzach valley is the most heavily used water body, with about 38 percent already being drawn.