Slovak News Back to the news
Experts Discuss Improving Water Quality in Cierna Voda River
Tuesday 04 May 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Vinne, May 4 (TASR) - Options for improving protection and 'reviving' the basin of the Cierna Voda River near Michalovce (Kosice region) were discussed by representatives of local and state authorities, entrepreneurs and civil associations at a working conference near Vinianske Jazero (Kosice region) on Tuesday, TASR learnt on the same day.
The annual conference of the Laborec-Uh project addressed the issue of improving water quality over an area of 29,000 hectares, which includes 32 villages.
The implementation of the five-year project plan worth €800,000 comes under the remit of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) regional centre in Bratislava. "We have several projects running in eastern Slovakia that are aimed at improving living conditions and the social and economic development of the individual territories. The objective is to ensure that they're on a par with other parts of Slovakia," said manager of the centre's environmental projects Klara Tothova.
She added that the pilot plan within the Laborec-Uh project is focused on water management, agricultural production, the environment and social and economic development. "The individual activities are focused on technical assistance for managers in water management and farmers when transferring from conventional methods to ecological management," said Tothova.
According to experts, the options for the ecological revival of the area include the recreation of original wetlands in places that are currently used for agricultural production. In addition, the restoration of wetlands matters not only from the viewpoint of water quality, but also as regards anti-flood measures.
Project manager Eleonora Bartkova said that water quality in the area could be boosted if water-treatment plants were constructed in villages on a gradual basis.
A similar project called 'A Place for Water', the strategy for which was presented in mid-April at a seminar in Trebisov (Kosice region), is aimed at reducing the damage caused by floods on the Bodrog River in Kosice region.
The project was worked out by Slovak experts under the UNDP's Global Environmental Fund, with its strategy co-drafted by the Slovak Water-management Company in Zilina.
According to Bartkova speaking in mid-April, along with the Bodrog strategy, the project is focused on improving natural conditions in fen areas and those liable to flooding, and the results should be applied vis-a-vis other river basins around Slovakia.
The area along the basin of the Bodrog - which straddles Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine - has suffered extensive ruinous floods. In many cases, preventive anti-flood measures are taken only locally, by individual regions, and usually include only the most urgent procedures, warn experts, stating that many of them are introduced only after areas have already been hit by devastating floods.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
