Hungarian president Áder: Irrigation water should be used sparingly

It is inevitable that the area of irrigated farmland will increase but clean water should only be used to the extent that nature can replace it, President János Áder said in a radio interview on Friday.

There are numerous examples around the world of what happens when water is overused, he said, adding that irrigation should only be allowed in a sustainable way, subject to verification.

“Groundwater levels in Hungary are decreasing, so it’s not a matter of indifference as to how much water we use,” Áder said.

The president noted that he had sent a law that would have allowed the drilling of wells up to 80 meters without permission to the Constitutional Court. If a system is not in place to verify the drilling of wells, no one would be able to tell whether the 80 meter-level was breached or not, he said, adding that it was all too easy to pollute the water base used for drinking.

Áder noted that next year’s World Water Conference in Budapest will focus on preventing a water crisis. He recalled that

the related UN advisory body of which Áder is a member calls attention to three “dramas”: a lot of water, little water, and polluted water.

To prevent these, political will, determination, diligence, and budgetary resources are needed, he said.

The president also made reference to a conference last week with 4,500 participants in which the governor of California invited participants to San Francisco to submit meaningful commitments.

Áder said that 23 Hungarian major cities had signed up to the agreement that set targets that are more ambitious than those reached in Paris, with a view to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050.

As we also reported in May, the water completely disappeared from the Zalakaros thermal lake one morning. The repair cost has recently been estimated, and it is not cheap. If everything goes according to plan, it will cost HUF 50 million to restore the lake to its original state, read more HERE.

Photo: MTI