Profile of Company.

Severomoravské vodovody a kanalizace Ostrava a.s. is among leaders on the water and wastewater market in the Czech Republic. Since 1992, SmVaK Ostrava has been operating with the current structure as the biggest water company in Moravia and Silesia.

Before 1992, the drinking water was supplied and waste water was discharged and treated on the territory of the former North-Moravian Region by the state-owned company with the same name – SmVaK Ostrava. After privatisation, more than 85% shareholders were the municipalities from the region. In 1999, UK-based Anglian Water became the majority shareholder with 54.3 % share in business. ONDEO Services acquired 44.7 % share in business. On the 26th February 2004, Anglian Water’s share was transferred to Waterfall Holding B.V. (100% subsidiary of Penta Investments). On the 30th April 2004 , Waterfall Holding B.V. bought the minority share from SUEZ Environnement (former ONDEO) owning 98.45 % in SmVaK Ostrava.
On the 11^th April 2006 Penta Group signed the contract on sale of 98.5% of shares of SmVaK Ostrava to Spain-based Aqualia (fully owned by the FCC concern specialized in building industry and utility services). The new owner started exercising his rights in the company on the 1^st July 2006.

The current structure of SmVaK Ostrava is based on the organisation of the former state-owned company that was linked in terms of technology to the Ostrava Area Water System. This corresponds to the area covered by SmVaK Ostrava now: Frýdek-Místek, Karviná, Nový Jičín, and Opava. Contracts were concluded on supplies of the drinking water into public water systems in Ostrava, Studénka, Hlučín and some other villages, including the district of Bruntál and Přerov. SmVaK Ostrava is the only one water company in the Czech Republic that exports the water, namely to the border area in Poland.

The water networks that are currently owned and operated by SmVaK Ostrava are more than 4,900 km long. There are more than 120,000 water service pipes with the length of 842 km. More than 737,000 people (86% of all residents living there) are connected to the SmVaK Ostrava’s water network. The total number of people who are supplied the drinking water, including those in Ostrava, Hlučín, Studénka, other towns and villages in the region, some towns and villages in the District of Přerov, and the border area in Poland exceeds one million. The produced drinking water is of a high quality and meets permanently requirements relating to the water for infants.

Another important business of SmVaK Ostrava is the discharge and treatment of wastewater. More and more attention is being paid to that business because of the current environment protection requirements. More than 500,000 people (this means, about 59% of all people living in the region) are connected to SmVaK Ostrava’s wastewater networks. The length of the wastewater network is 1,300 km. There are more than 36,000 sewer connections with the total length of 311 km. SmVaK Ostrava operates 62 wastewater treatment plants.

The key objective in the area of the waste water is to improve permanently the conditions of the sewage system. Trenchless methods are being tested now for repairs of sewers. They are of a particular advantage when working in town centres. More and more sewers have been cleaned, and the time spent on inspections and maintenance of the sewers has increased. Industrial cameras are used for sewer inspection.

A particular attention is also paid to the treatment of waste water. SmVaK Ostrava has succeeded in that area. In 1992, only 8% of waste water was treated with satisfactory efficiency, while now more than 99% of wastewater is treated efficiently. State-of-the-art methods used for elimination of nitrogen substances are used as a standard method in practice. In addition, the latest technologies, for instance the phosphorus elimination, have been introduced recently. Solutions have been found to major sources of pollution in SmVaK Ostrava’s business. The company contributes thus much to the protection of environment affected by SmVaK’s activities directly in the region where it operates, including the city of Ostrava, as well as in far zones since the treated water returns to the natural environment.

SmVaK Ostrava intends to provide the high level services to clients in all areas of business. Regional Customer Centres have been established for dealing with issues relating to the water supply, wastewater discharge, and wastewater treatment. SmVaK Ostrava co-operates with the municipalities in creation of territorial development plans, and provides advisory services.