A new filtration system at the Želivka Water Treatment Plant should improve Prague's drinking water

Some Prague residents will be drinking water purified by a granular activated carbon filter system. The system should be operational in two years.

The Švihov reservoir on the Želivka river is the Czech Republic’s single largest source of drinking water, with some 1.3 million people in Prague, Central Bohemia, and Vysočany depending on it.

While the water quality from the Želivka Water Treatment Plant is already good, the long-term plan is to make it even better by using modern technology that is becoming common in treatment plants throughout Europe.

Construction on a purification hall at the Želivka water treatment plant started a year ago. Trial operation is to start ar the beginning of 2021 and full use is expected from January 1, 2022, according to daily Pražský deník.

The system is similar to carbon water filters many people use at home, except on a much larger scale.

Želivka river. via JirkaSv / Wikimedia Commons

The filtration hall will have 16 filters, reaching 1.7 meters and holding 2,700 cubic meters of granular activated carbon. The cost of construction and installation is estimated at 1.2 billion CZK. Ongoing costs will be due to pumping water and renewing the filter.

Activated carbon can remove substances that traditional filtration systems miss, such as agricultural, industrial and pharmaceutical chemicals.

The modernization of the treatment plant takes into account that water standards might be tightened in the future and that population in the area served by the plant might increase. It also prepared the plant to respond to crisis situations, environmental accidents, and natural disasters, as well as intentional efforts to disrupt the water supply from the Želivka river basin.

Source on Newsexpats  

Raymond Johnston

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Taxonomy

• Carbon Filtering
• Activated Carbon