Well-located city

Rivers have served as sewers everywhere. Vilnius, which is located on the Neris River, is no exception. The Neris and its small tributary, the Vilnia, were commonly used for sewage and waste disposal. As a result, supplying drinking water might have been a problem, but Vilnius is fortunately in an excellent position in terms of groundwater resources.

Until the Second World War numerous private and public wells supplied a major part of water consumed in the city, and the role of the centralised water supply system was minor. Even today, groundwater is the only source of raw water in Vilnius. As a consequence, the problem of river pollution has remained unresolved for a long time. A few wastewater treatment plants were built in factories beginning in the 1960s, but the first municipal treatment plant was not constructed until the 1980s, and its biological treatment facilities did not become operational until 1996.