Rohrbach, Village Infrastructure

Rohrbach, Village Infrastructure

Waste water as a valuable resource: Shaping new resource landscapes

In times past, the landowners bathed in the water in the village but what flows along the Rossbach today is not so inviting. In addition to rainwater and water from the spring, the stream now also transports sewage from the village.

The situation is typical of many parts of Thuringia. Almost every third household in the state is not connected to a proper sewage treatment facility. The Chair of Urban Water Management at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar has therefore developed a new system together with the Nordkreis Weimar Municipal Sewage Treatment Department, that permits the separate collection and regional reuse of grey water and black water. In addition to the installation of a multi-stage plant-based filtration treatment system, solids from the black water will be converted along with agricultural waste material into energy and fertiliser. This innovative process, however, requires changes to the institutional organisation and operation processes of sewage treatment.

The municipality intends to embed the new process in the landscape: the grounds of the former manor estate in Rohrbach, which previously served as an agricultural research institute, is particularly suitable as a contained space for experimentation. In the long term, this material cycle could help the village supply itself with energy and at the same time improve the ecological and tourism potential of the village.