We need to start conserving water or we'll be forced to make drastic adjustments in the not-too-distant future

Hungary is currently experiencing a historic drought. Many of our waters look apocalyptic, and due to the Danube’s record-low water levels, the Paks Nuclear Power Plant nearly had to be completely shut down, posing a serious challenge to the country’s energy supply. Telex interviewed Balázs Lukács, the Acting Director at the Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, and Márk Szijártó, researcher at ELTE’s Department of Geophysics and Space Sciences and research fellow at the József and Erzsébet Tóth Endowed Hydrogeology Chair and Foundation. In this article, we’ve compiled the most important points discussed during the broadcast.

1. Droughts Are Getting Worse

Six years ago, Balázs Lukács made a statement which caused quite a stir. He said that if we didn’t take action, the Great Plain would turn into a desert. Since then, the situation has only worsened: six years ago, only 10 percent of our surface waters were considered seasonal, meaning they dry up for shorter or longer periods. Today, this ratio exceeds 30 percent, which is very high, especially given that this change occurred within such a short time. The situation is even worse for bodies of standing water, 50 percent of which tend to periodically disappear. Over the past six years, the impact of drought has dramatically increased in Hungary, with one harsh, drought-stricken year after another, each worse than the last, but thanks to closer monitoring, experts now have more accurate data on the state of our waters, the research biologist said.

The problem is that we are unable to retain sudden heavy rainfall because it simply trickles away, and precipitation in winter, which would normally seep into the soil slowly, has been scarce. According to Balázs Lukács, there are some good grassroots initiatives for retaining water, but these are not sufficient on their own. If we are to be effective nationwide in capturing precipitation, we need top-down state programmes and subsidies.

2. János Lázár was right

Both experts agreed with János Lázár, who, at his parliamentary hearing last year, said that the Orbán government had made a mistake by not building large reservoirs ten years ago. According to Márk Szijártó, if these reservoirs had been built back then, the water shortage most likely wouldn’t be as severe as it is right now. Experts are divided on whether we should build hydro-electric dams or large reservoirs on the Danube. In the current weather conditions, however, these would only provide a temporary solution, and we would need comprehensive ones instead. We need to prepare for the extreme weather events we’ve seen this year occurring at an accelerated rate.

3. We don't want to invest in the environment

According to Balázs Lukács, experts have been signalling for decades that there was a need for water reservoirs; there were even specific plans drawn up, for example, for flooding the low-lying areas of the Tisza Valley, but for some reason this never caught the attention of political decision-makers. Although flood control reservoirs have been built on the Tisza, these are used for reducing peak flood levels, although a few of them were opened last year. We are not addressing environmental issues systematically and are unwilling to spend much on them, even though forward planning could prevent disasters – this problem has persisted through successive government cycles according to the experts. Another factor that made managing the drought more difficult was that water-related sectors (such as wastewater treatment and flood protection) used to be scattered across different ministries.

4. Solutions exist, the only thing missing is political will

Hungary isn’t the only country struggling with water shortages nowadays; several other European countries have already taken the lead in addressing the problem. Belgium and the Netherlands have also experienced severe droughts in the past, and Denmark has launched forward-looking initiatives as well. The Danish government is spending a great deal of money on restoring wetlands and previously plowed-over lakes, said Balázs Lukács.

One solution could be to widen river habitats and to re-meander rivers, as this would slow the flow of water and allow it to spread out more effectively during floods. Many similar projects have already been implemented in the Netherlands, and these could easily be applied in Hungary as well—it’s simply a matter of political will.

“The cost of a single fireworks display on August 20 would be enough to fund the restoration of several habitats—these are not exorbitant sums we're talking about.”

There have only been a few habitat restoration programs of this kind in Hungary. Ideally, these should be scaled up nationwide, but currently, the Hungarian government is only funding one such program.

5. Lake Velence is fine

According to Balázs Lukács, we don't need to save Lake Velence because it is a sodic lake. Having as little water as it does now is part of its natural cycle. If there were no reservoirs, similarly low water levels would probably occur more often, but the lake would never have dried up completely. Lake Velence is bigger than most sodic lakes, which is why it dries up less often. Its water shortage is actually causing economic and social problems due to the service facilities developed around it. “Lake Velence is doing just fine, thank you very much; its ecosystem actually needs lower water levels from time to time.”

6. Water shortage could become a nationwide issue

Balázs Lukács thinks that if we do not take steps towards water conservation, then in the future, during a drought as severe as this one, water restrictions will be necessary across the country. At the time we recorded our interview, there were water restrictions in effect in 600 Hungarian towns and villages. He also noted that tap water is cheap in Hungary compared to other countries, so the public is not compelled to conserve water. Márk Szijártó noted that a significant portion of our drinking water is sourced from the ground—specifically, from shore-filtered wells—, basically, from the very rivers whose water levels are currently low. If we were to draw less water, there would, of course, be more left in the rivers.

“The question is whether we’ll start adapting to the future that researchers and experts are predicting—where situations like the current one will become increasingly common—now, gradually, or whether we’ll have to make drastic adjustments in the not-too-distant future, which would be much more painful. If we don’t start encouraging people to cut back now, we’ll have to do it abruptly later, and that will be painful,” said Balázs Lukács.