Turku water quality ranks best in world

The quality of water produced by Turku Region Water been rated as the best in the world by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The UNESCO made the recognition in a book named” Managing Aquifer Recharge – A Showcase for Resilience and Sustainability” published on Tuesday, said the City of Turku in a press release on Wednesday.

The Turku Region Water Ltd. is the second-largest water producer in Finland is one of the largest suppliers of drinking water using managed aquifer recharge.

The contribution of the Unesco book is a tribute to the Finnish water know-how, as the shortage of groundwater is a global challenge to be solved.

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) -method is presented as an efficient, ecological and sustainable way of producing water as the available groundwater resources are heavily diminishing throughout the world.

The book represents 28 MAR plants from 21 different countries, from which Turku Region Water plant in Virttaankangas is the only Nordic waterworks.

About 50% of the cases concentrate on plants that produce drinking water, while in the rest of the cases show how MAR is used for other purposes, such as irrigation or aquifer storage and recovery.

The natural purification process of the infiltrated water within the sand and gravel aquifer is essential to the water quality improvement in the Virttaankangas case.

As a consequence, Turku Region Water supply shared the first place in the international quality evaluation represented in the book.

In addition, the MAR water supply of Turku Region Water was referred as an exceptional example in the Unesco publication in several occasions. CEO Aki Artimo, production manager Osmo Puurunen and hydrogeologist Sami Saraperä co-authored two chapters in the book.

”The quality evaluation included not only the excellent quality of drinking water but also ecological,” Artimo said.