Szczecin. This is how the national team's fans lost faith in the team. The waterworks company provided the data

By collecting water from the municipal network, waterworks workers can estimate how many city residents sit in front of TV sets. When an important match of the Polish national football team begins, water monitoring records a drop in water consumption by several percent. After the first half of the matches against the Netherlands, last Sunday, and on Friday against Austria, water consumption suddenly increased by almost 350 cubic meters per hour.

– This confirms that many fans “kept up the pressure” and after the half-time whistle, they went en masse to the toilet and the kitchen to make tea or coffee – explained Hanna Pieczyńska, spokeswoman for ZWiK in Szczecin. – The most interesting thing is that in the second half of the match against the Netherlands there was a significant drop in water consumption again, and after the match there was another peak. However, the water consumption chart in the second part of the match against Austria is “flattened”. When the players returned to the pitch, a temporary drop was visible, but after subsequent goals conceded, water consumption increased and Szczecin residents moved away from the TV sets, Pieczyńska diagnosed.

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The largest water pumping station – Pomorzany, serving the left-bank part of Szczecin, recorded a sudden, point increase in water consumption by over 250 cubic meters per hour during the breaks of both matches. After the end of the Poland-Netherlands (1-2) match, there was the same jump. This confirms that there were emotions until the last whistle.

– On Sunday afternoon, the standard water flow in the pumping station in Pomorzany is 1,700 cubic meters per hour – explains Pieczyńska. – Last Sunday, after 3:45 p.m., an anomaly was visible, a sudden increase of 253 cubic meters per hour, and after the match break, a drop of 252 cubic meters per hour – specifies the ZWiK spokeswoman.

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At the Kijewo pumping station serving Szczecin's Right Bank, water consumption during the break in the matches against the Netherlands increased by 88 cubic meters per hour in one minute.

ZWiK did not publish such detailed data from Friday evening and afternoon, when the Polish national team lost to Austria (1-3). But – as Pieczyńska explains – the water consumption graph shows only one very clear peak, an increase of 250 cubic meters per hour, after the first half of the match, around 6.50 p.m. In the second part of the match, water consumption is quite stable – Even someone who does not know anything about water distribution and consumption can clearly see that the pressure has dropped significantly, both for ZWiK and the fans – sums up Pieczyńska.

The ZWiK spokeswoman notes that modern monitoring of water consumption makes it possible to determine when tens of thousands of Szczecin's inhabitants sit in front of the TV, but also when they get ready for bed, when they get up, when they return from work, etc.

ZWiK operates over 1,300 kilometers of water supply network, six water production plants and nine water pumping stations. The annual water production is approximately 23 million cubic meters. Nearly 90 percent of the water supplied to Szczecin comes from Lake Miedwie, the fifth largest lake in Poland. The intake station is located 255 meters from the western shore, at a depth of 16-18 meters from the water surface.