The Cliffside Bay map provides access only to a small stretch of water in a bay at the start of the game. How can I deal with water pollution here? I'm relatively new to the game.
Originally I put the drain pipe on one extreme of the bay and the pumping station on the other extreme. Of course the pollution keeps spreading in the bay, threatening to reach the water pump. Later when I could buy more land, I bought two squares to the west, built a long pipe, and drained the sewage by the beach on the other side of the map. I removed the original drain pipe, hoping that the pollution will eventually just go away. But it doesn't go away. I keep watching it as it slowly slowly inches towards my water pump and will probably eventually kill the city.
I remember reading somewhere that water pumps can be used to remove polluted water. So I built one with a corresponding drain pipe and a separate pipe circuit far from any buildings. But the new circuit is not operating. It has electricity but it seems it won't do anything unless some buildings are connected.
So what's the solution here? Will it be necessary to use water towers exclusively and put up with the main waterfront being all brown?
Best Answer
If you're looking for temporary solutions, you can buy another square of land with more coast and move your water pump farther away from the drain pipe, or you can get all of your water from water towers instead.
Once your city is classified as a Big City by having 16,000 inhabitants, you will be able to build Water Treatment Plants, which purify water before dumping it into the ocean. They're more expensive than drain pipes, however, and can handle less water at a time.
Once you get rid of all the drain pipes, your bay should slowly return to being clean, sparkly, and just all around lovely. If you want to speed up this process, you can build some pumping stations to pull up contaminated water, without connecting them to your plumbing system. The nasty water will be pumped out of the bay and disappear, with nowhere to go.