diff --git a/python_startup/01_load_db.py b/python_startup/01_load_db.py
index 077ad64c0aea674a07ddca341233643e61ebe7e6..f32db3712954cc76640202fea834712f45d526b7 100644
--- a/python_startup/01_load_db.py
+++ b/python_startup/01_load_db.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import os
 from dotenv import load_dotenv
 import sqlalchemy
 import pandas as pd
+from urllib.parse import quote_plus
 
 load_dotenv("/usr/src/app/.env")
 
@@ -19,7 +20,7 @@ class Database:
 def db_connect(db_name):
     hostname=os.getenv("DB_HOST")
     user=os.getenv("DB_USER")
-    password=os.getenv("DB_PASSWORD")
+    password=quote_plus(os.getenv("DB_PASSWORD"))
     conn = sqlalchemy.create_engine(f'postgresql+psycopg2://{user}:{password}@{hostname}/{db_name}')
     return conn
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 1abdf346215fd10e720d0a27ec987ed3573efd48..a76a2d2f4194685dc5914d6a0b23fb842a3a1ff1 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -3,4 +3,5 @@ jupyterlab-gitlab==3.0.0
 psycopg2-binary
 psycopg2
 python-dotenv
-sqlalchemy
\ No newline at end of file
+sqlalchemy
+urllib
\ No newline at end of file