First-class drinking water in Austria’s capital Vienna is an aspect of the quality of life the Viennese are envied for by the citizens of many other capitals. Safeguarding this advantage is topping the priority list of the city government!

Already in 1873, when the First Vienna Springwater Pipeline was constructed, did the city government realise that it was necessary to particularly protect the surrounding areas of the springs to safeguard the water quality on a permanent basis. Therefore the City of Vienna decided to gradually buy the areas around these springs in Lower Austria (Rax–Schneeberg: 1st Spring Pipeline) and in Styria (Hochschwab: 2nd Spring Pipeline).

At the same time this strategy made the federal capital the most important employer of the spring protection woods and a promoter of near-natural forest management. The surface owned by the City of Vienna presently amounts to 320 square kilometres – this is almost as much as the surface of the city!

A new campaign with famous names

While the first campaign for the protection of drinking water and the careful handling of it in 1999 already stirred great interest among the population and the media (it was initiated by the Hawelka couple), the scope of the sequel has been extended to the subjects "Water – Woodland – Spring Conservation".

Many celebrities could be won for the new campaign from many different domains. The list of their names reads like a "Who is who":

cinema:
Franz Antel
cuisine:
Reinhard Gerer
science:
Helmut Pechlaner
music:
Marcel Prawy and
TV:
Ingrid Wendl.

They all have sat for different promotion photos.

The wide-ranging campaign, already launched before Christmas, was covered by the following media: Citylights, Megaboards (large billboards), A1 poster, school promotion, advertisement and free cards (available in typical Viennese restaurants). (Source: aqua press Int. 1/2001)