Wiesbaden Local Council Plc. has been carrying out research in the area of water supply since the second half of the 1960`s with increasing state support. The long existing radioactivity measuring station for the Rhine waters was the starting point. Research projects in this sector received, from 1967 and over many years, contributions from the Ministry of the Interior.
Also in the same year, an additional project, within the framework of the International Hydrological Decade (1967 - 1975), to run over several years, was started, and supported by the German Research Society. The aim of this project was to check the process of ground water regeneration in our water collecting facilities in Taunus. By granting additional financial contributions directly to applicants, there were additional projects in the ensuing months, supported by the Federal Ministry of Research (BMFT now the BMBF), the Ministry of the Interior and other institutions.
In time the legal regulations, which were becoming more complicated, especially in the area of labour law and liability, made it necessary to begin the planned research work on a more legally secure basis. In July 1977, following a long preparation period, Wiesbaden Local Council Plc, which in the mean time had adopted the acronym ESWE decided to establish an ESWE Institute for Water Research and Water Technology.
In October 1977 the institute was entered into the trade register. The main concern of the Institute is research into water supply and it`s associated technology, water analysis and the prevention of water pollution with the aim of promoting science and research by making results accessible to the public.
At the time when the institute was founded, six research projects had been completed and four were being worked on. Ten years after, at a fittingly celebrated jubilee event, which included not only an anniversary speech and a few research reports, but also greetings from the Ministry of Research, the Society of German Chemists and Johannes Gutenberg University, more than 20 completed and ongoing projects could be reported, including those of the Water Research Work group (the name of the research team before the founding of the Institute). Today, ten years later we can look back on nearly 50 large and small research projects despite a serious lack of direct support, in the time after reunification. The subjects researched cover those areas, which are stipulated in the Institutes duties.
Years before, Dortmund Local Council had founded a similar institute. After which public sector companies founded further institutes. In order to condense the existing research and investigation capacity and to avoid a double workload, the DVGW Institute Association (which now has seven members) was formed in 1994 on the suggestion of the ESWE Committee Chairman, Dieter Sammet.
Prof. Klaus Haberer
Founding Director of the ESWE Institute
