The quantity and quality of different groups of surface and ground waters in the Slovak territory are monitored by a partial monitoring system. Of the entire 8,210 km of economically important rivers, 3,723.3 km are monitored. The quality of ground waters has been monitored in Slovakia since 1982 in 26 key water management areas by the Slovak Institute of Hydro-Meteorology. The monitoring network of ground water consists of a total of 344 monitoring units. The most significant of these areas is part of the 10 protection areas of natural water accumulation. In addition, some 24 protection zones of natural healing resources and natural spring water resources have been registered. The most extensive monitoring network has been created in the Žitný ostrov area, which is the largest drinking water source in Central Europe.
The purpose of the proposed project is to facilitate a sustainable transition by water managers, farmers and other resource managers in Slovakia’s Eastern Lowlands from conventional water and agricultural management techniques to integrated ecosystem management practices. In so doing, resource managers will conserve globally significant biodiversity and reduce nutrient loading of the Danube River.
The expected starting date is January 2006. The project addresses the development and implementation of self-sustaining water and land management resulting in expanding area of (semi-)natural floodplain habitats. The project area is bordered by Laborec and Uh Rivers, the Zemplinska Sirava reservoir in the North and a large drainage canal draining into the Uh River in the South, falling within the Michalovce district, one of the poorest regions of Slovakia. The project will establish a LEADER partnership within the region encouraging set up of new environmentally friendly businesses, benefiting from the improved quality of natural floodplain habitats. The project has a very high potential for replication in similar floodplain areas in Slovakia, EU member states, as well as in accession countries in the Balkan region (especially in the Danube River basin).
Expected outcomes
* Stakeholders will adopt a long-term strategy for ecosystem-based water and agricultural management practices; * Stakeholder capacity, policies, and incentives to implement Integrated Ecosystem Management (IEM) will be strengthened and operational; * Stakeholders will pilot model ecosystem-oriented biodiversity conservation practices; * Best practices and lessons learned from the experience of implementation of IEM in the pilot area will be disseminated to other regions of the Eastern Lowlands, as well as other new EU members and accession states in the Danube River basin for systematic replication.
In Slovakia there are currently approximately 180 small hydro plants with the total capacity of 60MW. It is expected that in response to the closure of nuclear and/or fossil fuel plants, as well as increased consumption an additional 300MW of small hydro capacity will be needed from a large number of smaller hydro plants. There are 250 potential sites identified on major rivers as suitable for the development of small hydro plants and additional undocumented capacity exists for smaller streams, creeks and rivers as well as natural dams and hydro systems.
The remaining potential of renewable energy sources that can be used for the purpose of electricity generation is significantly lower (compared to small hydro) for the following reasons: inadequate conditions (wind energy), prohibitively high investment intensity (solar energy), lack of exploitable sources (geothermal energy), or preference given to heat production (biomass). For these reasons, small hydro plants are a logical way to follow when developing Slovakia’s renewable energy potential.
There is EU funding available in Slovakia for renewable energy. In this programming period (till end 2006) 5 small hydro-power plants will be supported from EU funds (up to 5 MW each)- the projects are approved, the contracts have to be signed. In programming period 2007-2013 the government set up a goal to support 10 small hydro-power plants from EU fund with the capacity up to 10MW each.
After determination of feed-in tariffs (valid since August 2005) the price from hydro-power plants is cheaper than from traditional resources. Compared to the EU (including recently joined countries), Slovakia has the lowest feed in tariffs for renewable energy and gives no preference to small renewable energy electricity generators. On the other hand – there is a demand for the electricity from this source.
