A much-needed treatment plant upgrade prevented a drinking water shortage for the 11 000 residents of the town of Vrchlabí, northern Czechia. The Herlíkovice plant was facing serious technological problems, having last been modernised in 1996. The project was carried out between 2017 and 2019, while the plant was in full operation. Residents are now guaranteed access to safe, clean drinking water for at least the next 10 years.
- 12 November 2020
The problems piled up and it was necessary to address everything comprehensively. The European subsidy was a good thing. Everything could be done at once, without phasing the investments.
The plant’s outdated technology and equipment were replaced. This included installing a new pre-cleaning sieve, used for catching fish from the Elbe River and larger objects like branches. The speed mixing process that ensures a homogenous mix of coagulation chemicals and river water, and the slow mixing process to allow the coagulation of pollutants to take place, were upgraded.
A new filtration system and chlorine dosage system were installed and the old 100 m3 drinking water tank was replaced by a 440 m3 one. A drinking water quality analysis system was installed. Previously, the quality of the raw water drawn from the Elbe and that of the treated water were not measured.
The plant now has an automated system that controls every part of the water purification process and makes adjustments according to the quality of the treated water produced. The plant employs four people.
Comprehensive overhaul
The local water utility, Municipal Water Supply and Sewerage Vrchlabí (Měvak) is in charge of operating and maintaining 80 km of water supply and sewerage network. This includes the Herlíkovice treatment plant, which has a capacity of 90 litres per second, and the Vrchlabí - Podhůří wastewater treatment plant.
About 80 % of the water is drawn from the Elbe, while rest comes from the underground springs at Pod Strážným, Peklo, Kněžice and Žalý.
The EU subsidy of CZK 47 million (EUR 1.8 million) allowed for a comprehensive upgrade of the plant and for the project to be implemented in one go, instead of in phases.
Increasing defects
Construction of the Herlíkovice treatment plant was completed in 1968. It received its first major upgrade in 1996. In those 28 years, the water treatment process remained unchanged and defects in the technology became increasingly apparent. This caused the quality of the treated water to decline.
Měvak director Petra Vrabcová says the quality of water from the Elbe deteriorates every year, due to pollutants from human activity. The worst culprits are bacteria such as e.coli (from human and animal faeces), clostridium perfringens (which causes food poisoning), chemicals like ammonia and metals such as aluminium.
In addition, the radon content in the treatment plant itself was unacceptably high. Radon is a colourless, odorless radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer. It enters the air from the natural breakdown of uranium in soil or from water that is extracted from underground sources. In this case it came from the subsoil of the Krkonoše mountains. It contains the radioactive mineral uraninite (pitchblende). The project installed an air conditioning system that removes radon from the air.
Future plans
Currently the water is purified in a single-stage filtration and coagulation process. Impurites are precipitated into larger particles which are then filtered out. The plant’s management is considering the possibility of adding a second purification stage, or hardening the water, because the town’s water is very soft. This will depend on changes to the quality of the source water and on any changes to existing legislation.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “Intensification of the Herlíkovice water treatment plant“ is EUR 2 876 536, with the EU’s Cohesion Fund contributing EUR 1 833 792 through the “Environment” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “Improvement of water quality and reduction of flood