Country Report Hungary

Mapping

The vast volumes of information about the Tisa river basin were sorted in two different ways, which do not cover all the existing information.

The present mapping of information and documents requires further efforts to produce an effective meta-database covering all areas and supporting the future planning and implementation phases of the SDP TRB.

Main establishments

It was summarised on the basic of national workshops:

International relationship

There is an international background of integrated and complex thinking on sustainable development.

The Conference of Ministers Responsible for Regional Planning of the Member States of the Council of Europe (CEMAT-CoE) declared a few principles. The most important are sustainability and cooperation.

The Council of Europe would like to work on the Tisa River Basin Development Programme as the first agreement forming part of the European Large Space Development. The Regional Planning of the Tisa River Basin will contain the general strategy of all sectors.

The participants should find a common method for monitoring.

The common financial facilities have not been declared.

Government Activities

The regulation of the Tisa River was based on the idea of Pál Vásárhelyi, a civil engineer. The works were started in 1845.

In 1998, 1999 and 2000, catastrophic floods occurred.

The New Vásárhelyi Plan is under preparation. Instead of embankment-lifting, reservoirs will be established and used. In the Tisa River Catchment Area, there are 54 reservoirs with a 2.3 billion m3 capacity.

For flood management, only 5 reservoirs were build with a capacity of 0.654 billion m3.

On the Hungarian territory, 14 reservoirs are planned for the regulation of flood peaks.

On the Hungarian Great Plain, 400 settlements are located with 300,000 properties and 1.5 million inhabitants.

The inundation territories were not classified as environmentally sensitive areas.

Local Activities

Model-area (Tisa-Space, Tisa Association)

The Oxbow utilisation permit is issued by the government to local government for fishing. Native fish species will be reintroduced.

Wetland areas are developed with the support of a PHARE grant.

Thermal baths need aid for modernisation.

Nature conservation is highly developed in some districts.

Hungarian Government Programmes associated with the Tisza River

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

Regional developments in the Tisa River Basin

During the CEMAT - COE (European Conference of Ministers Responsible for Regional Planning of the Member States of the Council of Europe) conference, it was recommended that the regional planning efforts of countries in the Tisa river basin should be coordinated.

The Ministry of Transport and Water Management, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development take part in the work coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Alföld (Great Plain) Programme

The programme has been gaining support from continuous research and development since 1992.

The primary focus of the programme is to create harmony between the ecology and agriculture. Beyond the raw material production, the processing of raw materials emerged as a new direction. A complete assessment of the situation was carried out, which included the mezo-regions, based on the existing conditions, production traditions, requirements from a sustainability point of view and the expected impact of joining the European Union.

The authors of the studies took potential development opportunities into consideration, which could preserve and strengthen the region's agricultural production.

Research incorporated the issues of management, control, spatial development and business development due to changed ownership and property patterns.

Inland waters system reconstruction and drainage maintenance

A new type of regulation was needed for water systems and water allocations related to agricultural production, since the past situation threatened production security. Moreover, the inland waters on agricultural areas may threaten human settlements.

Due to climatic anomalies occurring in one year, areas of the Great Plain could face rising inland waters, as well as drought later during the growth season. Though irrigation itself does not prevent drought, there is a need for quality plant (especially seed) production and the related irrigation of those areas. In order to maintain and partly keep in operation irrigation stations, reconstruction works need to be maintained.

Ministry of Environment

Tisa river monitoring

The environmental pollution of 2000 changed the water pollution protection concept.

Thorough research (sediments, flesh of fishes, micro-organisms, water toxicology, macroscopic invertebrate communities) pushed the responsible authorities to prepare better for water quality monitoring. Beyond monitoring activities, current research targets the development of new solutions for operative interventions in the case of new pollution.

The search is also on for new alternative technologies for the neutralisation of different kinds of pollution. This task fits well into the Helsinki Convention, of which Hungary is a signatory.

Nature conservation

The organisation of management systems that may be used as models for new agricultural programmes is under way.
Preparing new territory under Ramsari protection.
Establishment of the Upper-Tisa National Park
Five countries' agreement
In 2001, the five riparian countries developed a common agreement for sustainable development of the Tisa river catchment area.

Ministry of Transportation and Water Management

Vásárhelyi Plan Further Development

Based on the floods of the Tisa during 1998-2001, a new concept was developed with the following founding elements:

Reserving water in the mountains in non-Hungarian territories of the Tisa river basin

Increasing the water-carrying capacities when high water levels are experienced

Crisis reservoirs in plain areas

Further lifting of embankments for flood protection

There is a potential to create 30 new water reservoirs, with 14 having been analysed in detail. The decision is to be made on government level.

In 2001, the five riparian countries developed a common agreement for sustainable development of the Tisa River catchment area.

Water supply and wastewater treatment programme

Due to ISPA funds from the European Union, major wastewater treatment plants of regional importance are in the implementation phase. Regarding the Great Plain (Alföld), the wastewater treatment plants of Szeged and Debrecen are of importance.

As a result of warnings by the expert community, more emphasis should be put on the traditional and alternative wastewater treatment technologies like biologically active plant root-zone wastewater treatment, especially in areas taken out of agricultural production in comparison with structures made of concrete.

Ministry of Economics

The Ministry of Economics provided financial support primarily to the development of bicycle roads. This resulted in improved knowledge and information about the Tisa river basin area.

Financial support was also provided to the expansion of thermal baths and the renovation of historical buildings and castles in the area.

Tourism plays an important role in sustaining the local people and decreasing migration from the region. The tourism in the region may concentrate on soft tourism, both for foreign and national visitors, with the following advantages:

Traditional lifestyle and traditional management practices

Special species and the whole biodiversity of the area

Landscape specialities

There is great potential for international tourism as a result of coordinating regional development efforts with Hungary's neighbours to the East.

List of related publications

The list contains 26 studies, 23 articles, 10 rules, and 193 uncategorised documents about the environment and flood management, providing standard bibliographical information.

NIMFEA database of Tisa activities 2000-2002

On request of the REC, the NIMFEA Nature Conservation Association has developed a searchable Tisa database. It contains almost 300 records related to the Hungarian part of the river. Each record is a detailed project description and follows the same structure in the system.

The process of collecting data is targeted to projects that were developed since 2000. The sources of this information are:

Ministry of Environmental Protection
HNP, Hortobágy National Park
Körös-Maros National Park
Ökotárs Foundation
CSEMETE Association
NIMFEA Nature Conservation Association

The database targets activities (programmes and projects) carried out in the Tisa river basin during the 2000-2002 period.

The database is searchable and provides the following categories that can be combined in as many ways as the user may require:

Sectors: academic, government, NGO, business
Implementing person's name
Geographic location
Tisa river segments and arbitraries: Upper-Tisa, Middle-Tisa, Berettyó, Hernád,Korösök, Maros, Szamos and Zagyva
Settlement list in the Tisa river basin: more than 250 items
Small regions in the Tisa river basin: 30 items
Address of implementing organisation
Implementing organisation
Programme type: Biological survey and research, knowledge dissemination, environmental protection activities, strategy, concept development, planning, nature protection, regional and spatial development and management
Specific type
Programme sponsor, financial sources
Programme budget
Document reference number
Contact person
Search by key word: sustainable development, regional development, sub-regional development, settlement development, connection with the "Új Vásárhelyi Terv" (new concept for water management)

The cooperating partner information is also a service of the database available on CD-ROM as well.

The relatively new information in the database may be a good start for partnering and coalition-building for projects under the SDP TRB.

ECHO Research survey, database about the micro-regions concerned in sustainable development of the Tisa river basin

The ECHO Research Organisation undertook a survey, and collected information about local environmental problems, their treatment, and the projects of the micro-regions concerning the sustainable development of the Tisa from the managers and experts of the 80 micro-regions working in the Tisa's catchment area through standardised questionnaires.

The questionnaires processed so far refer to the micro-regions of 534 settlements in the Tisa catchment area, of which 57 are on the riverside. Of the micro-regions that were examined, 40-42% are in the Lower and Middle Tisa, 18% are in the Upper Tisa. These micro-regional associations work with 72 full-time employees, 2 persons by association on average, but only 25% of the associations have an employee focused on environmental programmes. Based on estimates of these associations, the livelihood of 2% of inhabitants are directly, and of 7% indirectly linked to the Tisa.

In environmental questions, there are no essential differences between the interests of the civil sector and local governments, but there are some conflicts between the civil sector and companies and between local governments and companies mainly because of dangerous materials emission and waste treatment. Half of the associations maintain that they can do nothing, while the other half feel that they can do something with the joint development of programmes and tenders. A third of the managers of associations think that friendship and business relations are determining factors in national, regional and county tenders, while two-thirds think that such relations may exist but are not essential. According to the majority of experts, local government actors should play an important role in establishing and managing relations between civil and business sectors in the environmental field, but they are not committed to this.

According to the associations, the most important environmental problem is with sewerage and solid waste treatment (both of them are essential in the interest of protection of water reserves). Micro-regions think that the protection of the environment and waste treatment improved in the last ten years, but that noise pollution increased. Experts on the Upper-Tisa think that the quality of water is unchanged, while experts in the Lower and Middle-Tisa think that the situation has worsened.

The majority of respondents said that there is a conflict between economy and ecology, but that it is moderate so far. For local government support for an investment, the first guidelines are the influence on the social situation (creating employment) and the adaptation of previous investments. Profitability and environmental reasons are secondary.

There is complete agreement on the question that micro-regions cannot solve their environmental problems with their own resources, even if two-thirds of the associations include a civil organisation with an environmental focus and in the other third, there is a company handling environmental problems. Associations expect 70-75% of the total cost of sewerage investments from the government, and the remainder should be divided between local government and inhabitants. Almost the total costs (90-95%) of the Tisa's restoration should be financed by the government.

The most important partners of associations in environmental programmes are regional rural developing councils, local civil organisations, the local media and the Ministry of Environment. They cannot rely on local small companies, multinational companies and international organisations. Respondents qualified cooperation between the actors of micro-regions in the interest of the Tisa area as satisfactory or good.

The main elements of sustainable development are environmentally friendly infrastructural investments, the sustainable use of natural resources, the identification and eradication of pollution sources. The heads of associations considered the creation of employment, improving of life conditions, conservation of biosphere, flood control, property security and the development of tourism as less important, and the least important were flood area agriculture, bio-culture and sustainable forest management.

Between 30 and 40% of the associations have their own environmental programme focused on water quality, air quality, environmental protection, sewerage treatment and issues around drinking water, but several associations address the problems of waste, noise and protected species.

Tisa figures in the Sapard programme of 60% of the associations in the Tisa catchment area as a tourist question, almost half of the associations address it as an economic and environment question, and it figures as a flood control question in the regions directly concerned.

The biggest risks are chemicals, while the problems with sewerage, industrial environmental pollution and tourism cause damage only in a few micro-regions.

According to the leaders' experiences in the last two years, the situation in the Tisa catchment area improved with the regard to water output and flood control, but conditions with regard to fishing and quality of life worsened, while the quality of water did not really change.

Half of the associations cannot spend money on media exposure, while the others spend 4-5% of their budget on it. Around 16% of the associations published a printed newsletter, a third published electronic newsletters, while half have a website and relations with national media.

Based on their personal experiences, media reports are authentic about problems experienced in the Tisa catchment area, and organisations spoke favourably of local cable television stations and the public media, and less favourably of commercial radio stations. They all think that there are too few reports about problems of the Tisa catchment area in the media.

More than half of the associations are informed about the REC Tisa River Basin Integrated Sustainable Development Programme, with 60% considering it very important and 33% rather important to participate in an international programme aimed at the sustainable development of the region. Among the REC's Tisa projects, the most actual are the creation of cooperation between different sectors and the creation of vision, but micro-regions would consider it useful to evaluate the development programmes. It is also important, but not extremely actual, to prepare reports and to take into consideration environmental organisations.

Local governments have financial difficulties in general, nevertheless they can influence agricultural structure, rural development, environmental programmes and investments realised in their region. If they admit principles of sustainable development, are ready to cooperate with the civil sector and can manage the economic-social-ecology conflicts resulting from the business sector's interests, they could become the pillars of the Tisa sustainable development programme.

Recognised needs for sustainable development