Water over gold. New Slovak fairy-tale?

Some households in Slovakia buy packaged mineral water to drink, others prefer water running out of a tap. Slovakia has rich reserves of underground water that is, in comparison with other countries, a treasure. The quality of Slovak water and its future was part of the discussion of the Slovak Ekotopfilm festival in Bratislava.

“We sit on drinking water resources and cut off its quality,” said Ingrid Konrád, head architect of Bratislava, during the discussion.

Konrád compares the Slovak situation with Austria, while Austrians have to transport water from the Alps via aqueducts to Vienna, Slovaks have access to water with no work.

“We are the biggest enemies of our water resources,” said Zsolt Lukáč, managing director of the Bratislava Water Company.

Environmental burdens

This could happen to increase the income of some companies, some individuals, when the consequences are out of sight, he opined.

There are several significant problems with underground water, the pollution of Žitný Ostrov (Rye Island) that arose only several months ago or the evergreen waste dump in Bratislava’s Vrakuňa city borough that devalued the underground water to such a great extent that it is not recommended to use underground water to pour in the garden or eat the fruits or vegetables that grow nearby.

There are about 1,800 registered environmental burdens in Slovakia, while 100 are in the Bratislava Region and 300 from the overall number is in the solution phase, according to Environment Ministry data.

“There are 17 monitoring stations only near the Vrakuňa waste dump,” said Norbert Kurilla, state secretary of the Environment Ministry, also mentioning other waste dumps in Bratislava that create problems.