After the water has slowly made its way through filters filled with sand and granulated activated carbon, the only thing left to do is thoroughly disinfect it. This is done with UV light and by adding chlorine. The whole process of transforming the Vltava River into drinking water takes about eight hours at the plant’s current output of around 400 l/s. During that time, the raw water coming into Podolí is treated to make it drinkable and then channelled into a reservoir tank beneath the courtyard of the waterworks. From there, it is pumped onwards in four directions: to reservoirs in Karlov, Flora and Zelená liška, as well as through a pipeline under the Vltava to Smíchov, where it’s sent on to several further reservoirs.
So, who runs this giant “drinking water factory”? Its operation is actually automatic. A plant supervisor sits in the control room, next to the 45-metre tower, and oversees the entire water treatment system. The only time that operating personnel have to go into the plant itself is when supplies of chemicals need to be topped up. The control room contains twelve monitors and modern wall-mounted panels, which the operator uses to supervise water treatment processes and supplies to reservoirs. The green wall with its impressive array of indicator lights, dials and other vintage control elements has been left there purely out of nostalgia.
After the major floods of 2002 – which it didn’t escape unharmed – the Podolí Waterworks was taken out of regular operation. For some time after that, it was used only as a backup water source if the Káraný or Želivka water treatment plants were out of service. Eventually, though, repairs had to be carried out on the Káraný primary feeder pipeline, while at the same time extensive maintenance was scheduled at Želivka. The Podolí Waterworks was needed once again, and was returned to operation with its original capacity of 400 l/s, or as high as 1,600 l/s if needed. So once again Prague residents got to drink water from “their” river.
... the southern facade of the Podolí Waterworks’ tower is ornamented with sandstone sculptures by three different artists, representing allegories of the Vltava River and its ten major tributaries: the Vydra, Otava, Blanice, Malše, Berounka, Sázava, Podblanická Blanice, Želivka, Lužnice and Nežárka rivers?
If you’d like to learn more, continue to the other parts of the treatment plant...
