I have stolen the title from Asterix og Obelix , from the album where Chief Majestetix has a stomachache and has been prescribed a stay at a spa. There is a bathmaster there named Aqua Communalis. By making a somewhat loose interpretation of the expression, you can easily render it as 'municipal water.' For water, and especially municipal water, that is what I am currently occupied with.

Water flows from the tap; it is clean, clear, and can be safely drunk as it is. We take it for granted, but a lot of thought and work goes into making that happen. The ancient Romans were masters with their aqueducts, as they called them. They didn't have pipes that could be pressurized, nor pumps, so they had to build brick channels. If they had to cross a valley, they had to build a bridge to lay the channel on. But they managed it. They supplied cities with large populations with water. Roma In the year 100 AD, there were one and a half million inhabitants, all of whom needed water. It did not flow from the taps in every house and apartment. One had to go to a public baths or public fountains to fetch water. The cleanliness and taste of the water could probably vary, and it is likely that several Roman stomach ailments originated from contaminated water. But they were skilled engineers and tackled the task with the resources they had available.

These are the same tasks we must solve today. We have better resources at our disposal than the ancient Romans. We have pipes of all sizes and materials, we have pumps and filters. We can make the water flow both down and up hills. But we have strict requirements to relate to. The water we provide should be clean and safe for everyone to drink and should flow from the taps with constant pressure.

Nerfossen i Reinelv

The water is usually fetched from high-altitude rivers or lakes where not many people or animals frequent. As a result, the water is as clean as possible to begin with. Not many years ago, this was considered sufficiently clean to be used as drinking water. People were accustomed to the local bacterial flora present in the water and seldom became ill from it. Only in the larger waterworks in cities was it common to add chlorine to kill bacteria. Nowadays, it is more common to use UV irradiation to disinfect the water. The water is filtered to remove particles in which bacteria can hide. Then, the water is exposed to UV light in a chamber. The light intensity is continuously monitored, and if it becomes too low, the water supply is shut off to prevent bacteria from passing through. In addition, water samples are regularly taken and analyzed for both bacterial presence and harmful substances. Water consumption is monitored to detect leaks in pipelines and distribution networks. You just hold the glass under the tap, fill it with water, and drink. Few people think about everything that has to happen for this to occur.

With modern materials and techniques, we solve the task much more easily and better than the ancient Romans. Nevertheless, it is a big task, especially for small remote municipalities, where the geography often means that several small waterworks must be built instead of one large one. Think about this the next time you pour yourself a glass of water. Imagine the raindrop falling up in the mountains and think about everything it has to go through before it ends up in your glass and can be drunk.

Vann er egentlig et merkverdig og ganske enestående stoff. Det kommer flere artikler om vann etterhvert. Jeg har allerede tenkt på et par allerede, men det kan jo ta litt tid, da……. Stay tuned.

Vanntassen