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Can foreign experience help Czech spas to develop?

During the meeting on 15.09.2020 employees of the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies of Mendel University in Brno, the Department of Water Protection of the Główny Instytut Górnictwa in Katowice, Poland, KOCMAN envimonitoring s.r.o., and representatives of the state enterprise Horské lázně Karlova Studánka discussed about the possibilities of sustainable development of spas, innovative technologies and socio-economic aspects at a joint workshop organized by Czech partner Mendel University.

The topic of the meeting was the issue of further use of spa wastewater. After the presentation of the project and its activities, there was a more general discussion about the development of the spa and its limits. "We are particularly concerned about threats to the spa's natural healing resources - noise, dust, drought, emissions… Better coordination and cooperation of regional development actors would help, mutual transfer of information between individual entities and public authorities in the region and at central level should be improved." noted Ing. Vítězslav Hrazdil, technical manager of the spa. Among other things, the spa is plagued by protracted restitution disputes, which de facto make their development impossible.

However, the seminar dealt mainly with the issue of the use of spa waters, which now drain uselessly after treatment procedures with a temperature of about 32 degree of Celsius. Polish colleagues presented the outputs of the LOCAL project, demonstrating the technical possibilities of using this water for heat recovery and its further use, eg for heating, on the example of the Central England region. The workshop also included an excursion through the technical background of balneo operation and a discussion with the spa's balneo technician, Ing. Kocman.

The concrete outcome of the meeting was the agreement of the parties on future mutual cooperation in the preparation of an economic model for the installation and operation of such equipment. This could save the spa money in the future and reduce the negative impact on the environment. The spa is counting on the reconstruction of the balneo operation anyway.

The HealingPlaces project brings together partners from seven Central European countries to improve environmental management for the protection and sustainable use of natural heritage and resources. Within the Czech Republic, the researcher is Mendel University and the model area is the Jeseniky spa.