Water Supply and Demand in Slovakia

Abstract

The water supply in Slovakia is mostly assured from the public water supply systems based either on surface or on groundwater sources. Surface water sources are represented by water reservoirs or by direct water take-off from the surface streams. As groundwater sources, either wells or springs can be utilized. There are 295 water reservoirs in Slovakia, 32 of them are regularly evaluated within the quantitative water management surface water balance. Eight water reservoirs were constructed until now for drinking water supply purposes; more than 200 small water reservoirs serve mostly for irrigation. The amount of 247.5 millions of m3, which makes 7.85 m3 s−1, was abstracted from the surface water sources in 2015. The main economic sectors using the surface water are industry, public drinking water supply and irrigation. The amount of water abstraction from the groundwater sources is generally higher than from the surface water. The total amount of 325.7 millions of m3 (10.332 m3 s−1) was abstracted from groundwater sources in 2015. The number of inhabitants supplied with water from the public water supply sources has been increasing steadily, reaching the number of 4.7853 million (88.3%) of inhabitants of Slovakia. The number of supplied municipalities reached 2,380 with the share of 82.4% on the total number of municipalities of Slovakia. However, trend of the water consumption, both total and specific for private household, is declining in the long-term scale, from 195.5 L capita−1 day−1 in 1990 to 77.3 L capita−1 day−1 in 2015. The quality of drinking water from the public water supply systems has been showing a high level in the long-term period. Slovakia does not have any problem with a disease associated with the drinking water from public water supply systems. The development of public sewerage systems lags behind that of public water supplies. In 2015, totally 1,044 municipalities had the public sewerage system in place. This makes only 36.2% of the total number of 2,890 municipalities in Slovakia.