HAMBURG WATER GROUP stands for the sustainable Use of Water in the Metropolitan Region of Hamburg Water is the basis of all life. Hamburg lives with water like hardly any other city in Germany. The Alster and Elbe rivers as well as the huge port with its countless basins and small channels shape its face. In the middle of the 19th century, Hamburg was the first European continental city to have a centralized system of drinking water supply and wastewater management to be operated and maintained by municipal authorities. Later, Hamburg Waterworks (HWW) and Hamburg Sewage Works (HSE) became successors of these early authorities, providing excellent water services over many decades.

In order to ensure Hamburg’s excellent drinking water quality and environmentally sound wastewater management at fair prices, on 1 January 2006 HWW and HSE merged in order to form the horizontally organized HAMBURG WASSER group. This kind of corporate structure allows for utilization of numerous synergetic effects for the benefit of the customers, but also for retaining of the original HWW and HSE corporate structures necessary to comply with federal tax regulations. Important advantages of the merger include standardized organizational structures, joint human resources development, joint asset management, strengthening of procurement, uniform IT landscape, combined accounting for potable water and wastewater services, and improved construction site coordination. HAMBURG WASSER and its companies are wholly owned by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

The circle in the brand of HAMBURG WASSER stands for the natural water cycle. It symbolizes the identity of potable water supply and wastewater management. The brand’s clear blue colour represents the purity of our drinking water as well as of the treated wastewater – today the outlet of our wastewater treatment plant is one of the cleanest tributaries of the Elbe river.