Underground water presents as much as 95% of resources of drinking water in Slovenia, which are fairly well preserved compared to the situation in other European countries, the National Environmental Agency highlighted on Tuesday, World Water Day.
There is poor awareness in Slovenia that the whole territory of Slovenia is in fact a water collection area, which means that everything that is being dumped eventually ends up in underground water, Marjeta Krajnc of the agency told the press.
She said that about 60 percent of ground water comes from alluvial aquifers, while the rest comes from karst and fissured aquifers.
Fresh water supply mainly depends on shallow alluvial aquifers, Kranjc explained, highlighting that these aquifers were completely unprotected, vulnerable to pollution from intensive industrial and agricultural activities on the land's surface, transport infrastructure and dumpsites.
Even more vulnerable are karst and fissured aquifers, which have lower purifying capacity since waters flow more swiftly there. "Fortunately, these aquifers are well protected by forests," said Kranjc.
She said some sources of fresh water do not require any additional purification of water, which is a great advantage of Slovenia, according to Kranjc.
As for pollution of ground water, Kranjc said that the levels of nitrates and pesticide antrazine often exceed the allowed levels. However, she noted that a drop had been noted in the concentration of atrazine.
Kranjc announced that the agency would upgrade the network of groundwater quality measuring stations. She said that phytoplankton would be used in assessing the condition of waters in future.
Kranjc said that the EU water directive, passed by Slovenia upon EU accession, calls for a good condition of all underground, surface and coastal waters to be provided by 2015.
The main theme of this year's World Water Day is "Water for Life", stressing the importance of water as a source of life.
More articles from this issue:
Archive
|