This year, Prague wants to start the modernization of the old water line of the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant vod (ÚČOV) on Imperial Island. It is to cost six billion crowns and last until 2027. Today, Prague councilors agreed to the investment, and representatives will still vote on it. The city launched a water line in 2018, after the modernization the old one should have the same technologies. The councilors also approved a plan that in the years 2023 to 2028, water and sewerage in the metropolis should grow by two percent above inflation, then only by inflation.

“Approval of the change in the zoning decision and the issuance of a valid building permit is expected by the end of May 2022,” the approved document said. According to him, the city must modernize the new line so that the facility meets European standards for the amount of nitrogen in the discharged water. If the municipality did not start the reconstruction of the old line by 2025, it would face fines of one hundred million from the Czech Environmental Inspectorate. As well as the entire modernization of the WWTP, the city-owned Prague Water Management Company (PVS) will be in charge of the investment.

Today, the councilor also approved a recommendation for further action after 2018, when the contract for the operation of the water supply and sewerage network to the company Pražské vodovody a kanalizace (PVK), which is now owned 51 percent by the French company Veolia and 49 percent by the city, will expire. According to the approved recommendation, after the city bought the remaining shares from Veolia, the company was to transfer ownership of PVS.

The new water line cost the city 7.3 billion crowns and after three years of operation was approved in December last year. In addition to the construction of a new line and the reconstruction of the old line, part of the WWTP’s modification project is the repair of the sludge that is generated during cleaning. It should start after 2024. In the past, the city failed to obtain money from the EU to pay for the modernization of the facility and to pay for it from water and sewage.

Source: ČTK, photo: wikimedia commons, ŠJů

14.2.2022 14.12, Rubric: Water purity and recreation, Water supply and sewerage