Price of water to go up

The need to bring water purification facilities up to EU norms is likely to send the price of water in many Czech towns up by as much as 50 percent in the coming months, Saturday’s Lidové noviny reports. A spokeswoman for the Agriculture Ministry has confirmed that around 160 water purification facilities are to be built or reconstructed in the course of this and next year in order to meet EU regulations. Approximately 50 percent of related expenditures can be covered from EU funds, the rest must come from local budgets. The overall cost is being estimated at around 23 billion crowns.