Political as well as socio-economic reforms have turned the tables both on quantitative and qualitative aspects of hydrological environment in former socialist states. In East Central Europe, the structure of the management of water resources has been remarkably transformed by switching over to market economy from command economics. In the present paper, changes in the amount of water consumption, fertilization and the quality of river water in the Czech Republic and Poland over the last three decades are investigated with a research focus on their main cause by comparing situations before and after 1989. Affiliation with EU of Visegrad Four including both countries in 2004 is also a focus for consideration from the point of environmental management in the watershed of international rivers. The fundamental data for analysis on water use, quality of surface water and the present state of an effluent regulation were mainly collected from an interview with the central and local administrative offices of each country. Although environmental data were kept strictly secret during the old political dispensation in former socialist nations, a white paper and statistics on environ-ment have been issued after so-called East European Revolution. With those points as a context, the present condition on hydrological characteristics and the future course for their improvement have been gradually made clear in late years. In Czechia and Poland, water rates both for waterworks and for sewage subsequently increased with a big jump by the intro-duction of market economy as a turning point. It is a matter of course that such a steep rise in water charges has caused an economization and saving of water use not only for the citizens but for the enterprises. The collapse of factories after 1990 was another reason for the secular changes in distinct decrease of the amount of water consumption. It goes without saying that a decrease in the quantity of water use is related to the reduction of the amount of effluent. A decline in the amount of water consumption and sewage has produced a notable effect on the rehabilitation of water quality as a back-ground. In addition, the capacity and number of sewage treatment plant in both countries have enlarged after 1990. Such maintenance of the purification system has meaningfully contributed toward the cutback in the amount of pollutant load flowing to public water bodies. Besides the reduction of amount of fertilization due to both a rise in price of fertilizer and the enlightenment of sustainable agriculture has affected on betterment of water quality. As a result, water quality of major international river including the upper reaches of River Elbe has appeared to be improving in recent years. Despite the existing circumstances of river water quality in Central Europe are still problems awaiting solution, secular changes in concentrations of dissolved constituent have explicitly given substance to the fact of amelioration. The tendency and its primary factor of the recovery in river water quality as recognized in the Czech Republic and Poland mentioned above are generally common for those in other countries in East Central Europe.

identifier:03693562

identifier:03693562