Wastewater management and water resources in Slovakia

Abstract

Slovakia is a small country typical with high mountains on the north part, two lowlands reach the south border, and the middle mountains between them. This character of Slovakia defines the two river drainage basins orientated to the north Baltic Sea by the river Poprad and the next two directed to the south to the Black Sea. The Slovak Republic territory is 49,014 km2, with a population of 5.4 million, and is located in the temperate climate zone of the northern hemisphere with regularly alternating seasons. About 38% of the country is forested. Based on longitudinal measurements, the average annual air temperature is 7°C. The longitudinal average amount of precipitation is around 760 mm (Kriš et al., Sustainability of Slovak water resources, presentation in project SWAN – towards sustainable water resources management in central Asia. In: TEMPUS IV programme. www.wrmc.uz, 2013). The capacity of natural surface water source amounts is about 90.3 m3 s−1. Ecological discharges are 36.5 m3 s−1. Water reservoirs across Slovakia enable increasing the discharges in dry periods in 53.8 m3 s−1. Reservoirs can provide approximately 4,000 l s−1 of the high quality of water used for drinking purposes. Water off-take, currently amounting to 39 m3 s−1, is equal to about 29% of the discharges during dry periods and to 10% of the longitudinal mean discharge (Kriš et al., Sustainability of Slovak water resources, presentation in project SWAN – towards sustainable water resources management in central Asia. In: TEMPUS IV programme. www.wrmc.uz, 2013). The water consumption is significant for agricultural, for industry, and for drinking purposes, such as water supply system and production of bottled water. The very significance of Slovakia is the huge amount of mineral waters across the country, which reaches the high quality not only for drinking but for health purposes too. The connection to the public water supply system of the population is over 95%. The worse situation is with the public connection to the public sewer system, which reaches over 66% in the year 2017. This situation is continuously increased in the last 30 years, which is conditional by the investments. There are many people who work in the water sector, which is covered by the Ministry of Environment, governmental and public institutions, and a lot of private companies, which have a goal to improve and protect the public health.