Water Pollution: Can It Fade In Cities Skylines?

Water pollution is a common issue in the city-building game Cities: Skylines, and it can have negative consequences for the player's city when left unaddressed. The pollution is primarily caused by sewage and industrial work being located too close to bodies of water. While water pollution can slowly fade and fix itself over time in the game, there are several methods players can employ to speed up this process and effectively manage water pollution in their cities.

Preventing water pollution

Water pollution in Cities: Skylines is a common issue that can have a detrimental effect on your city and its citizens. Sewage is the primary cause of water pollution, with industrial work and other pollution-producing structures also contributing if they are too close to bodies of water. Here are some ways to prevent water pollution in your city:

Strategic Building Placement

When zoning your city, ensure that industrial zones and other pollution-producing buildings are located away from bodies of water. Some buildings, like garbage landfills and coal power plants, indicate a waste pollution radius, so be mindful of any water sources within this radius.

Use of Water Towers and Pumps

Position your water towers and pumps away from polluted areas to avoid contaminating the water supply. This will help prevent a city-wide health crisis as your citizens will not ingest polluted water.

Water Treatment Plants

Water treatment plants are essential in reducing water pollution. These plants function similarly to water drain pipes but are much more effective, eliminating up to 85% of pollution from sewage before disposal. While they are more expensive and handle less water than drain pipes, they are crucial in minimizing pollution levels.

Careful Pipe Management

Ensure that your sewage pipes are separate from your water pipes to avoid cross-contamination. Place drainage pipes downstream of pump stations to prevent pumping polluted water back into the water supply network. If your sewage pipes do become contaminated, simply move them to a different location, and the pollution will gradually move away downstream.

Floating Garbage Collectors

Implement floating garbage collectors to filter pollution out of bodies of water. These collectors are especially useful in flowing rivers or streams, as they will filter any water that passes through them.

By following these preventive measures, you can effectively minimize water pollution in your city and maintain the health and well-being of your citizens.

Strategic building placement

In addition to careful zoning, you can also use structures to process and clean up waste. Water Treatment Plants are a great way to purify water before dumping it into a body of water. While they are more expensive and handle less water than drain pipes, they are an effective way to reduce water pollution. You can also use water pumping stations to draw water from a source, cycle it through your city, and dump it as sewage. Just be sure to keep your water pumping station upstream of your drain pipe to avoid polluting drinking water.

If you're looking for more general tips on strategic building placement, there are a few things to keep in mind. It's a good idea to create a grid-like road structure in busy city centers to help with traffic flow. You can also stimulate happiness in commercial zones by ensuring that residents have to cross commercial areas to get to where they need to go. If you have a large city, consider building a highway ring road with simple on and off-ramps to connect your cities.

As your city grows, you may also want to consider public transportation. Buses can be a great way to get started, but as your city expands, you may need to add subways or passenger trains to reduce congestion. Remember to place hospitals and fire stations in easily accessible locations, and ensure that your industry zones have a steady supply of uneducated workers by building residential areas nearby.

Finally, don't forget that you can also use mods to have more control over individual building placement and development. This can be a great way to achieve the look and feel you want for your city.

Using water treatment plants

Water pollution in Cities: Skylines is mainly caused by sewage and industrial work being too close to bodies of water. Water treatment plants are one of the ways to combat this issue.

Water treatment plants are structures that process and clean up waste, reducing the amount of pollution in the water. They are more expensive than drain pipes and can handle less water at a time. They are also larger and require more energy to function. However, they are necessary to prevent water pollution from making your citizens sick and negatively impacting your natural fish population, which in turn hurts your fishing industry.

To use water treatment plants effectively, it is recommended to place them upstream from sewage pipes. This way, the treatment plants can process the sewage before it reaches the water bodies. It is also important to ensure that the water pipes are running underneath every structure, connecting the water towers, pumps, and treatment plants, to provide water to your citizens and dispose of sewage properly.

While water treatment plants can help reduce water pollution, they do not completely eliminate it. Some players have reported that even after building water treatment plants, pollution from drain pipes can still occur. This may be due to the placement of the treatment plants or the presence of other pollution sources.

To fully address water pollution, it is essential to remove the sources of pollution and let nature take its course. This means moving water towers and pumps away from polluted areas and ensuring that sewage pipes are far away from water pipes to prevent cross-contamination. With time, the water bodies will naturally recover and return to their clean state.

In summary, while water treatment plants can be a useful tool in managing water pollution in Cities: Skylines, they should be used in conjunction with other strategies, such as careful zoning of industrial areas and the removal of pollution sources, to effectively mitigate water pollution in your city.

Using water pumping stations

Water pollution in Cities: Skylines is a common issue that players face, and it can have negative consequences for your city, including making your citizens sick and hurting your fishing industry. Water pumping stations are an essential tool to combat this issue.

Water pumping stations are used to draw water from a natural body of water, such as a river, and cycle it through your city via water pipes. However, it is important to note that water pumping stations can also pull pollution towards them if there are enough pumps and the water isn't moving. This can cause the pollution to start flowing upstream towards your pumps, which can contaminate your water supply. To avoid this, make sure to place your water pumps away from polluted areas and ensure that your sewage pipes are separate from your water pipes.

To effectively use water pumping stations, you will need to set up a water drainage system. This includes water drain pipes and water treatment plants. The water drain pipes will need to be connected to the water pumping station and lead to an outlet pipe away from your city. The water treatment plants will help purify the water before it is released back into the environment.

It is also important to consider the electricity requirements of your water pumping stations. Ensure that your power stations have enough raw materials and good traffic flow to avoid shutting down due to a lack of electricity.

By following these steps and using water pumping stations effectively, you can help reduce water pollution in your city and ensure a clean water supply for your citizens.

Using floating garbage collectors

Water pollution in Cities: Skylines is mainly caused by sewage and industrial work being too close to bodies of water. While being strategic with building placement is a good idea, the primary cause of water pollution in the game is sewage. In the game, you typically use a water pumping station to draw from a source like a river, cycle it through your city via water pipes, and dump it back out into the water in the form of sewage.

To address water pollution, you can use floating garbage collectors. These can be found in the Green Cities DLC. They can be located in the round item on your Garbage Tab along with the base game Landfill, Incinerator, and the Green Cities Recycling Center. Make sure that the capacity of the floating garbage collectors is higher than that of the sewage outlets. They will only deplete the existing pollution at a rate equal to their excess capacity.

Floating garbage collectors do filter sewage, or at least they clean the water after sewage is pumped out. However, some players believe that they only filter out garbage pollution, not sewage.

In addition to using floating garbage collectors, there are several other ways to address water pollution in Cities: Skylines. You can actively reduce water pollution by using structures that process and clean up waste, or you can remove the sources of pollution and then let nature take its course. After some time, the pollution levels should return to normal. You can also do both at the same time to speed up the natural cleaning process.

Another way to prevent water pollution is to not use water drain pipes on bodies of water at all. Instead, use water towers and inland water treatment plants so you don’t have to touch bodies of water for your city’s needs. Repositioning your water drain pipes to a new area is also a cheaper option than building new structures. Once the source of the pollution disappears, the body of water will naturally recover over time.

Frequently asked questions