Water crisis in Hungary: Government pushes emergency measures as rivers hit record lows
The government is not standing idly by during the current drought resulting from “an unprecedented heat wave”, the minister of agriculture said on the sidelines of a farmer’s forum in Mórahalom, in southern Hungary, on Wednesday.
István Nagy told a press conference before the gathering that the government set up an operative corps early on in May to coordinate measures to reduce damage due to expected droughts. The government has allocated HUF 4.7 billion (EUR 11.7m) for the most urgent tasks such as such as dredging canals, expanding their capacity, and repairing pumps and culverts, he said, adding that the goal is to flood all canals with water.
Rivers are getting smaller and smaller
This, Nagy warned, was a serious challenge, “as there is 60% less water in the Tisza and 40% less water in the Danube than usual”. The government has also spent HUF 176 billion to help farmers with their irrigation infrastructure developments, as a result of which irrigated areas have grown from some 85,000 hectares to 150,000 hectares, Nagy said. The goal, he added, was to develop reserves holding 3 billion cubic metres of water by the end of next year, and this would mean less water leaving the country than entering it.
Irrigation water provided to farmers
Farmers are motivated to preserve water thanks to a new legal environment and subsidies, Nagy said, adding that reservoirs only used seasonally earlier were now used permanently. Nagy noted the government is providing irrigation water to farmers worth a total of HUF 10 billion free of charge. He slammed the opposition Tisza Party for supporting a European directive which would “ban governments from providing water to farmers free of charge”.
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