KøbenhavnsVandforsyningsHistorie

B R I E F E N G L I S H S U M M A R Y

T he oldest water supply o f Copenhagen, the capital o f Denmark, took place by means o f dug wells. Some o f these may be traced back to the 12th century, the time o f bishop Absalon, the founder o f the city. The first piped supply was constructed in 1578 during the reign o f king Frederik 2. Water was brought to the city in wooden conduits from a lake at Emdrup to the north o f Copenhagen. Several companies were formed to exploit this supply which gave sufficient pressure for use in fountains. Other companies used the water from lakes near the city, the water being distributed by wooden pipelines in the streets to public and private pumps. From 1679 the water companies were under the supervision o f a Royal Committee until 1812 when they were dissolved and the administration was taken over by a public water commission. As eventually the quality o f the untreated surface water deteriorated, and epid­ emic diseases occurred rather commonly, it was decided in 1854 to carry through a modern water supply system with sand filters, steam pumps and cast iron conduits but still using the water from the surrounding lakes. The project was planned by a Danish engineer, L. A . Colding , and the British waterworks expert James Simpson was called in to control the plan and supervise the construction. The first modern water supply o f Copenhagen was thus established and taken into use in 1859, the construction work being carried out by a British contractor. From that time the water supply has been administered by the city as a municipal institution. It was soon discovered that excellent water-bearing strata existed in the limestone underground o f the eastern part o f Sjælland from where the water could be collected by means o f borings, and from 1893 Copenhagen has been supplied exclusively with ground water, at present from about 700 borings. In the course o f time the rising water consumption has forced the Copenhagen Water Supply to extend its water collecting plants far to the north-west, west and south-west o f the city so that the most distant borings are now situated about 40 km from Copenhagen.