Making every drop count

This was the title of the report published last March by the United Nations and World Bank Group formed High Level Panel on Water. Outcomes of the report has been discussed during the expert events of the Budapest Water Summit, which has been concluded with a closing document called the Budapest Appeal.

It is also not a coincidence, that the Hungarian arm of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development also dedicated its recent business lunch for the subject on sustainable water management.

While these high-level meetings were making the international audience busy in Budapest, I've used my weekend to explore the Danube-Tisza-interfluvial area, 80kms south from the capital. As the subject was water over the last days, I've checked maps from the 18th and 19th centuries, expecting to explore the extensive lake area near Kerekegyháza.

As Hungarians are really proud - with a good reason - of their lakes, first Balaton but also the magnificent rivers of Tisza and Danube, water scarcity is often considered as the problem of the Mediterranean or the Middle-East.

Altough the significant lake called Kondor and shallow swamp areas towards the east clearly visible on the old maps, my trip ended with a rather negative conclusion. I could found sizeable water management sluices, channels and even water-level measuring pole with a scale expecting over 3 meters of lake depth - what I have not seen is a single drop of water. According to the nature conservation experts, this phenomena is partly due to the general lowering of the water-table as the water level of the Danube hits record-low readings and turning this area, about 30 kms from the river into an arid land too.

We have a saying in Hungarian: when you realize, that you see plenty of the same stories out there, but nothing really moves ahead - 'you could block the Danube with all of those' (Dunát lehet velük rekeszteni). In this case of the drying land, lowering the rivers in the Carpathian Basin - sadly - this adage might loses its meaning soon while one can block the Danube with all the appeals and summits on global water issues.