The Czech authorities have warned that the majority of sewage plants along the rivers Elbe and Vltava were put out of action in the recent flooding, raising the prospect of environmental damage.

The majority of treatment plants on three rivers, including the Vltava, which runs through Prague, and the Elbe, which flows north into Germany, are affected.

	Enlarge image

They may take weeks or months to repair - threatening successful recent efforts to reduce pollution, the authorities say.

Officials warned that if new pollution reduced oxygen, river life would suffocate.

People have been urged to minimise waste put into the sewerage system.

'War zone'

The deputy mayor of Prague, Petr Svec, is quoted as saying the river on both sides of the Czech capital looked as if no sewage farms were operating at all.

The Czech Government has extended a state of emergency until the end of the month because of what it calls the catastrophic level of damage. An International Red Cross official, John Sparrow, told the BBC the flood waters had left devastation resembling a war zone, with fields of crops covered with mud and rotting animal corpses.

The River Elbe has been significantly cleaned up over the last 10 years, with the number of fish species increasing after decades of pollution during the communist era, but this progress could now be at risk.

The German Environment Minister, Juergen Trittin, has also underlined the problem, saying repairing the sewage plants is one of the priority tasks in the post-flood reconstruction work.

Recriminations

In Prague, there is a growing debate on apportioning blame for the extent of the damage.

The water authorities have been attacked for allegedly under-estimating the scale of the floods.

Prague Heritage officials have also been criticised for preventing the construction of a flood barrier in the historic Mala Strana district.

It was one of the worst affected areas of the city, while the Old Town area on the opposite bank of the river, escaped largely unscathed, due to barriers prepared several years ago.