Water is a vital daily product. It is necessary to make great efforts to bring the product to the houses. The water supply of the city passes four main stages:

• Water intake
• Bringing water quality to the standards
• Water transportation
• Water distribution

There exist two types of water supply systems: Underground and Surface. The priority is given to the underground water intake because of the quality of raw water. Tbilisi water supply system uses both types. The intake of underground waters takes place in Aragvi Gorge, and surface water intake is carried out from Zhinvali water reservoir and Tbilisi Sea through Grmagele and Samgori treatment facilities.

After bringing the water to the standards it is transported and collected in water supply tank. There are 320 000 m2 capacity reservoirs and 28 high-capacity pumping stations on the territory of the city, which control water supply and pressure for the entire city.

Having reached the town, water is treated once again, then distributed to the districts by 3600 km network and supplied to flats by means of 1000 pumps.

Supply Pipelines and Distribution Network

Distribution of water extracted at the headworks and supplied through pipelines to the customers is carried out by supply pipelines system called network.

Length of Tbilisi water supply network with diameter from 13 mm to 1400 mm is 3600 kilometers. The branches are mainly arranged with steel pipes, while 35 % of main networks are arranged with crude iron pipes and 65 % - with steel pipes. Polyethylene pipes have been massively assembled of late.

Arrangement of the network which must provide rational distribution of water in the town is of paramount importance. This problem is especially acute for big towns like Tbilisi. The Georgian capital city has mountainous relief and difference between the lowest and highest marks reaches 1000 meters, therefore the network consists of 5 vertical zones.

Service Reservoirs, pumps and pumping

84 service reservoirs are placed in 35 different places of the town at different marks (with total capacity of 300000 m3) so that to provide normal water supply of Tbilisi.

All reservoirs are made of concrete, located underground, and have round or square shape. Reconstruction of reservoirs is going on at the moment.

Georgian Water and Power operates 141 pressure pump stations with installed engines from 4 to 75 kW. 65 pump stations are completely rehabilitated. Reconstruction of the rest of them is going on progressively.

 Water supply scheme