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The Ružín in Slovakia is a bathing site located close to a hydropower plant (see Box 15). The quality of water strongly depends on hydropower operation as does the management of the bathing site.

Box 15: Temporary interruption of bathing waters due to lack of water (Slovakia)

Ružín in Slovakia is a bathing water with excellent water quality that was closed for two consecutive seasons in 2011 and 2012. The closure to bathing was due to nearby construction works. Ružín is a reservoir for a pumped-storage hydropower plant. In 2011 and 2012, construction works at the plant, coupled with a lack of precipitation in the spring, led to a water level decrease as large as 6.5 m, rendering the location unsafe for bathing. This prompted the authorities to close Ružín as a bathing water. Since 2015, the bathing water operates again and is of ‘excellent’ quality (EEA, 2015a).

In Czechia, Lhotka, Šeberák and Popovice are other examples of ‘excellent’ quality bathing waters that were closed in 2014 due to lack of water in reservoirs. In all of the above mentioned cases the reason was removal of bottom sediments (EEA, 2015a). 

In the future, bathing water managers will have to compete with other water users such as agriculture and industry in order to ensure adequate bathing water quantity during the bathing season.