A historic moment occurred on Friday, August 20, 2021. In the presence of the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Armin Laschet, the Oberhausen pumping station was put into operation. At the same time, the Emscher sewer (AKE) came to life. Now nothing stands in the way of the Emscher being free of wastewater.
It was different for over 170 years and the renaturation of the river took many years and even more euros. But the major project was also completed on time in the last decisive phase – and despite the pandemic. “We are right on schedule,” says Ilias Abawi, Head of Communication and Marketing at the Emschergenossenschaft. Ten years of planning and implementation lie behind those involved, in addition to the Emschergenossenschaft, for example, various construction companies and the approval authorities. Concrete, steel and aluminum were the most important building materials, fortunately for those responsible there were no delivery problems and all materials were sufficiently available at all times. Other construction sites could only dream of it in the last 1.5 years. The milestones of the major project included the excavation of the construction pit and the construction of the pumping station in this construction pit. “At almost 50 meters, it was the deepest earthworks in North Rhine-Westphalia,” reports Abawi. After the machines were put into operation, the first functional tests quickly followed.
In addition to Armin Laschet, Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Daniel Schranz, Lord Mayor of Oberhausen, Dr. Frank Dudda, Chairman of the Council of the Emschergenossenschaft and Lord Mayor of the City of Herne, Prof. Dr. Uli Paetzel, CEO of the Emschergenossenschaft and Dr. Emanuel Grün, Technical Director of the Emschergenossenschaft, present. Everyone was pleased and proud of the success of this extensive project, which finally enables a contemporary and ecological use of the Emscher. There was hardly any resistance to the project, it is said, residents only occasionally complained about construction noise. Overall, however, it seems that the citizens of the cities concerned are aware of the importance of the renaturation of the Emscher. Dortmund, Castrop-Rauxel, Recklinghausen, Herne, Herten, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Gladbeck, Bottrop, Essen, Oberhausen, Duisburg and Dinslaken will benefit. “A river as an open wastewater course is no longer up-to-date today,” emphasizes Abawi.
Germany’s largest sewage pumping station in the future is in Oberhausen-Biefang. “A total of ten powerful pumps are needed to lift the wastewater from a depth of around 40 meters in the future – with a maximum output of 16,500 liters per second,” says Dr. Emanuel Grün, Technical Director at the Emschergenossenschaft.
The approximately 51 kilometers of the Emscher and tributaries should be cleaned by the end of the year, so that the redesign of the embankments and surroundings can begin. Soon, after all these years, a completely new sight will appear, which also offers the prospect of more extensive use of the Emscher areas, similar to other rivers.
The Emschergenossenschaft is a public water management company that efficiently performs tasks for the common good with modern management methods and lives the cooperative principle as the guiding principle of its own actions. It was founded in 1899 as the first organization of its kind in Germany and has since taken care of, among other things, the maintenance of the Emscher, sewage disposal and purification as well as flood protection.
Since 1992, the Emschergenossenschaft has been planning and implementing the Emscher conversion project, in close cooperation with the Emscher municipalities, in which almost 5.5 billion euros will be invested over a period of around 30 years.
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