BUDAPEST - The upper reaches of the Danube River are falling rapidly, with 510 kilometres of the river to be protected on Monday and 200 kilometres less on Sunday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told a press conference on Tuesday morning.
He said that during the day the flood will peak at Mohacs and leave the country, "we will see it off", so the operational team will work in a reduced form from Wednesday. He said only 1,847 people were involved in the protection operation, down from 4,458 on Monday. Orbán said that the rainfall expected this week will not affect the course of the tidal wave, so there is reason to hope that the tide will not break any points in the dam system.
The prime minister said that there was no longer a problem to protect any point over Budapest and that the capital could be considered "exempt". He also said that the Danube had receded by more than a metre at Mosonmagyaróvár, by 221 centimetres at Győr, by 293 at Komárom, by 235 at Esztergom, by 190 at Vác and by 162 at Budapest, and that the level had already fallen at Báje.
According to the Prime Minister, the Nagy-Pandur island in Baja can be protected up to a water level of 850 centimetres, but the water is now 75 centimetres higher; houses built in the floodplain are being invaded by water. During this year's floods on the Danube, temporary barriers were erected on a 40-kilometre stretch of the river and mobile flood walls were built on 4,600 metres, he said.
He said two million sandbags and 32,000 cubic metres, or 55,000 tonnes of sand, were used.
He pointed out that an order had been issued for the reclamation work to be carried out and that the sacks not used in the defence work would be returned to the municipal and state stores. The sand from the unused bags will be emptied and these bags will be used in the next flood, "which we hope will be a long time away".
Built-up bags that were not in contact with water are considered waste and will be destroyed accordingly, while bags that were in contact with water are considered hazardous waste and will be destroyed in accordance with public health regulations, he added.
Orbán also said the water department had mobilised nearly two thousand people, disaster management 1,760, defence two thousand, 24-hour emergency four thousand and police 420. In the last case, it was good that the number was low because it meant no police officers had to be diverted from public order duties to protect against flooding, he said. He added that "we're not going to debate the number of volunteers, there were a lot of them, it's good to have as many as possible."
He also noted that a third flood alert has been declared for a total of 403 kilometres.
He pointed out that an alert over level three, which poses an imminent flood danger, has been ordered for about 40 km.
He said since September 21, the water officials had covered 5,500 kilometres while monitoring their assigned stretches. He stressed that this is roughly double the total length of the Hungarian border.
He noted that he also calculated that he himself had travelled 1 687 kilometres, "but I had a better job than the water inspectors because they walked and I could drive". He added that this was the same distance as if he had driven to Tallinn during the flood protection period.
The most important feature of the receding tide was that it showed a difference in level of six and a half feet from the previous state before the flood, he said. As an example, he said the water level in Budapest on September 13 was 205 centimetres, while the maximum level was 830 centimetres. He added that the water level in Dunaújváros had risen from 60 centimetres to 677 centimetres, while in Bája it had risen from 173 centimetres to more than nine metres. Looking at the average of the municipalities, the water level rose from 141 centimetres to 797 centimetres, or eight metres, in a few days, he said.
Orbán thanked everyone for their work in protecting against the floods.
In reply to a question, he said that the cooperation between the local authorities and the authorities involved in the protection of the population during the floods had been exemplary and thanked Mayor Gergely Karácsony for his cooperation.
Asked whether the capital would get the 6 billion forints that have been blocked so far for the Chain Bridge and the tunnel, the Prime Minister replied that everyone would get what they deserve and what is due to them, and that this also applies to the capital.
He said that he had visited the entire stretch of the Danube during the recent floods and that he thought it wise to erect mobile barriers in several places so that sandbags would not be needed in the next flood.
He added that there are sections where mobile barriers cannot be built, but their length could be significantly shortened. He also stressed that the construction of the mobile barrier system "is not cheap" but "will not break the bank" of the Hungarian state budget, so if a well-timed proposal is received from the water authorities, these investments can be made next year.
EU flood relief aid is like a dog's dinner: it is better not to expect it, but if it is provided, we will thank you, the prime minister said when asked how much of the €10 billion EU flood relief aid Hungary will need. Orbán said it was an important "social psychological thing", that "we Hungarians, all of us, should get used to the fact that we can only count on ourselves".
"Sinn Féin, I might say, if I were looking for kindred peoples," he said, referring to the name of the Northern Irish political party, which means ourselves. "What we can solve we will solve, what we can't solve on our own nobody will do it for us," he noted.
Regarding the construction of a possible system of dams on the Danube, Orbán said that they have always supported dams built parallel to the river, but not a dam built across the river. Instead, he added that we should have a protective system, made up of excellent water management experts, built along the Danube, which will enable us to divert the sometimes growing masses of large water.
He recalled that Hungary is the only country where the Danube is not crossed by any dam, while the water levels above and below us are regulated everywhere. Such dams are an irreversible intervention and the damage to wildlife can be irreparable, he warned. Hungarians have a special relationship with the Danube and Tisza rivers, he said, "considering them sacred things", and therefore their sanctity should be preserved for as long as possible.
Referring to the Bős-Nagymaros water pipeline, which was planned in the 1980s but never built, he said that negotiations with the Slovaks on settling disputes that have been open since the 1980s are in full swing from an international legal point of view and that a Slovak-Hungarian agreement could easily be reached in the near future without the need to build a dam.
"There's so little good news, isn't there?" the Prime Minister asked why flood protection must occupy such a prominent place in government communications. He stressed that in terms of protection, "everything is working well".
Asked why, if the government spokesman said it was unfortunate to use flood protection for political purposes, 30 million forints of public money was spent on advertising on Viktor Orbán's Facebook page, Orbán replied that people must be informed during floods, and the bigger the problem, the more so. It is a duty and the government is right, he said.
He also said that cooperation with the Serbian authorities was ongoing, but that they had not yet requested assistance in flood protection.
miniszterelnok.hu / gnews.cz-jav