The Harzwasserwerke is a German water company and dam operator with the primary tasks of supplying drinking water, generating electrical power, flood protection and the maintenance of the Upper Harz Water Regale

Upper Harz Water Regale

The Upper Harz Water Regale is a system of dams, reservoirs, ditches and other structures, much of which was built from the 16th to 19th centuries to divert and store the water that drove the water wheels of the mines in the Upper Harz region of Germany...

. Water is impounded in six reservoirs built between 1930 and 1969 in the Lower Saxon part of the Harz mountains; drinking water is prepared in three waterworks and distributed over a system of pipes to large parts of Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

. The system is supplemented by four groundwater

Groundwater

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...

 waterworks on the North German Plain

North German plain

The North German Plain or Northern Lowland is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain...

. Delivering currently 80 million m³ of water per year it is the largest water company in Lower Saxony.