Water Services in Espoo, Finland, from the 1930s to the 2000s - positive challenge or burden of history?

Organised public water supply in Espoo started in 1934. In the Finnish context the City of Espoo is young, modern, and large in terms of its area, being the second largest city in Finland, with a population exceeding 230,000. Espoo is located next to Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. Espoo has grown very rapidly; in the early 1950s, the city had less than 30,000 people. There are numerous challenges for the future; the growth and population estimate by 2040 is 85,000. In 2007 about 70 percent of the distributed water was purchased from the city of Helsinki. The purification plant, Suomenoja, was completed in 1969 and it was operating in 2007 but there was a new wastewater treatment plant under preparation because the capacity of old plant was filling up. Wastewaters from neighbour municipalities were also purified there. This paper aims at discussing colorful periods of water services in Espoo. There are nine different episodes in water services, which can be recognized. First episode was in 1934 when organised water services both by the municipality and the private sector were started. Last, the ninth one was in 1994 when Waterworks become a public enterprise.