2005 - 2006 - Pinsent Masons Water Yearbook 2012

CZECH REPUBLIC PART 2: COUNTRY ANALYSIS
Czech Republic
Economics (2003)
GDP per capita US$7,150
GDP per capita (PPP) US$15,600
Agriculture 3%
Industry 39%
Services 57%
Sewerage development
Connection to the sewage network has increased from 38% to 48% between 1980 and 1992. The
number of operational wastewater treatment plants rose from 620 in 1989 to 960 by 1999. 75% of the
population was connected to the sewerage network in 2000, with the aim of increasing this to 80% by
2005. Before 1990, sewerage technology in the then Czechoslovakia was well regarded, when given
the money to operate to its intended standards. In 1990 a Kč3.75 billion sewage treatment works was
completed, one of Europe's largest at the time. Here, the effluent discharges were found to be
cleaner than the river water.
Sewerage and treatment 1991 1999
Tertiary treatment 0% N/A
Secondary treatment 46% 65%
Primary treatment 2% N/A
Sewerage only 24% 10%
Not connected 28% 25%
In addition, 60% of industrial effluents are inadequately treated. The total amount of effluents
discharged in the period 1992-95 decreased by more than 13%, with the amount of treatment taking
place increasing by 8%. This in part reflects investments in new and upgraded sewage treatment
plants during 1993-1995. The total amount of BOD discharged into rivers decreased by 40% between
1990 and 1996.
In 2002, 9.16million people were supplied with drinking water from the public water mains (89.8%) an
increase of 7.4% since 1990. The share of the supplied inhabitants within the administrative regions
ranges from 74.8% to 99.6%. Approximately 7.89 million people had connections to the public sewer
system (77.4%) an increase of 12.3% since 1990. The amount of wastewater treated in 2002 was
21% more than in 1990, some 92.6% of the total collected.
Population
Total (2003, million) 10.2
Total (2015, million) 9.9
In urban areas (2003) 75%
In urban areas (2015) 76%
In urban agglomerations (2015) 12%
Water quality
In 1990-92, the majority of rivers were understood to be of III/IV class. Across the country, at least
50% of all rivers are in a 'bad' or 'very bad' condition. These rivers can be regarded as biologically
dead and a significant proportion of these waters cannot be used for industrial processes even after
treatment.
On average, there are 60 cases per annum of groundwater pollution from oil and petrol storage leaks,
and 50 per annum from agricultural effluents. The aquifers along the Rivers Elbe and Moravia have
had increasing levels of nitrate contamination from agriculture. Since 1993, an improvement in
groundwater quality has been noticed. The quality of drinking water withdrawn from the surface
waters has remained poor. As a result, bottled water consumption is widespread, although costly.
From 2005, the quality of the water in the public water mains supplying more than 5,000 inhabitants
and representing approximately 65% of the overall population will be evaluated in three-year cycles.
Distribution losses of up to 40% have been identified in major towns and cities. Water lost through
leakage accounted for 23.8% of distributed water in 2002, compared to 25.1% in 2001. The Prague
77 Pinsent Masons Water Yearbook 2005 – 2006