About the quality of the water we drink

The project Drinking water as an existential public interest from the workshop of the civic association For Our Water, took place in 2019 and 2020 and had several goals: to verify water quality in the most exposed places in Slovakia in terms of existing contamination and inform the public about the results of analyzes, to connect several NGOs that are dedicated to the protection of water from various aspects and, last but not least, to draw public attention to the importance of protecting drinking water sources through a targeted campaign and press conferences.

In our opinion, the most important output of the project si, taht we convinced Bratislava Water Company about the need to analyze all its water resources for the presence of pesticides. After the analysis, the presence of pesticides in some water sources in Záhorie was proved, which were subsequently closed and replaced by drinking water from other sources. We want to achieve this goal in other water companies throughout Slovakia.

Another important output is the pointing to the inflow of contaminated water to the Poša tailings pond in Zemplín, which was stopped. Our research has further shown that hazardous PCBs do not spread in this area as soluble substances in water, but either by air in the form of dust particles or as soil particles in water. Our research was followed by another project of an enviro journalist, who further developed this topic at the health level and proved the presence of these substances in the blood of the most exposed people and in the fat of livestock. We continue to draw attention to this problem and offer solutions to both the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic and the Ministry of Health.

During the trip across Slovakia, we discovered several other environmental problems, which confirmed that the most important to prevent such and similar ecological damage is the education of young people and adults, who from the position of an active citizen have the opportunity to influence the situation. Based on our press conferences from the project, the inhabitants of many cities are approaching us with requests to help them with other local environmental problems.

A personal experience was meeting with other civic associations, creating a common platform and also brainstorming on the topic of effective communication of current eco-topics and a joint proposal to present to the public the agenda of water quality through the stories of ordinary people. Although the meeting due to the pandemic took place online, common topics connected us and in other projects we connect with NGOs so that we can use our human potential to the full.

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