The joint stock Water and Wastewater Company Vodárny a kanalizace Karlovy Vary (Vodakva) was established by privatizing the former state company in 1994. However, its history dates back to 1882 when the first municipal water and wastewater company of Karlovy Vary was formed. In twenty three years, Vodakva has considerably expanded its activities in the region.

Nowadays, covered by an exclusive lease, the company provides more then a hundred municipalities across the regions of West Bohemia (i.e., 190,000 inhabitants) with water and wastewater treatment systems operation, maintenance; renewal and development services. Most of these municipalities are members of The Water Management Association of the West Bohemia Region.

The Association was established in 1993 to run and upgrade the water assets. The number of its members has more than doubled since then. The Association is based on the municipalities ‘solidarity; the members approve water and sewage rates and the investment plan realized by Vodakva. The Association is the owner of the water infrastructure and has concluded with Vodakva a long term operating lease contract. The Association is also one of the two principal Vodakva´s shareholders. The second one is the company SUEZ, an international expert in water and waste management. Both shareholders are sharing the management of the company.

Vodakva supplies quality drinking water to 190,000 inhabitants of West Bohemia. The company cares for 26 water treatment plants, 1,680 km of drinking water distribution networks, 88 sewage treatment plants and 868 km of sewer networks.

Besides this main activity, Vodakva offers its customers water and wastewater utilities design and construction, laboratory water analysis, pipeline inspection and reconstruction, etc.

At the present time, Vodakva has 580 employees. The company is divided into 23 specialized operation centers. Seven water supply centers and two wastewater treatment centers provide the complete water and wastewater services on a regional basis. Therefore, they are equipped with the necessary technical and transport facilities. The operation of water treatment plants and sewage treatment plants is managed by four specialized centers. Another center is responsible for the operation of all pumping stations. The certified laboratory of Vodakva performs control analyses during the whole drinking water treatment and distribution process as well as during the sewage treatment and disposal. Furthermore, Vodakva also maintains a specialized center for automation and IT technologies. The technical division is responsible among other things for the water infrastructure development and for the control and optimization of technology processes. Other centers not mentioned yet are the two transport and mechanization centers, operational service, finance division, organizational development division and director´s division.

The operation of all water distribution systems in the area operated by Vodakva (i.e., water treatment plants, water reservoirs and pumping stations) is monitored and controlled 24 hours a day by the Central Control Room of Vodakva. Today, most of wastewater pumping stations and sewage treatment plants without service are also connected to this control room. Big sewage treatment plants with continuous operation have their own control systems.

Vodakva is certified to the ISO 9001:2016, ISO 14001:2016, ISO 45001:2018 and ISO 50001:2019 standards for all provided services. The laboratory is certified to EN ISO/IEC 17025:2018 (accreditation n°1443).