Prague, July 7 (CTK) – The drought caused by a long-time precipitation deficit plagues mainly the south of Moravia where the lack of water worries grain, fruit and wine growers, and the north of Bohemia, where the lower reaches of the Labe (Elbe) River are not navigable for freighters, CTK’s survey has shown.
The lack of water in some parts of south Moravia “has repeated very often in the past five or ten years,” Martin Ludvik, chairman of the Czech Fruit Growers’ Union, told CTK.
“The grain withered before it grew ripe. The yields are an utter disaster. They are at a half and even one third of the usual ones,” Antonin Osicka, head of the Agrarian Chamber in Breclav, south Moravia, said.
Yields of rape and grain lower than in the previous years are also expected in other parts of Moravia.
The drought has also damaged wine growers. They will have to renew about half of the plants since some, weakened by previous frosts, were definitively destroyed by the drought.
Shipowners in the north of Bohemia say the situation with the drought that has stopped their ships has repeated for a third year in a row.
The situation could be helped by the construction of a weir, which could start in 2022 according to the latest information from the Waterways Directorate.
The situation in the Moravia-Silesia Region is relatively good. In spite of that, the North Moravia Water Supply and Sewerage company (SmVaK) has prepared an internal plan for ensuring drinking water supplies in periods of drought.
In Bohemia, the Pardubice Region in the east and the Karlovy Vary in the west have not suffered from lack of water.
However, Karlovy Vary water and sewerage director Antonin Jagl says the water management is not based on any blueprint.
“Nothing has been built in this field in the past 25 years,” he said.
Experts say new water reservoirs are most needed in the Moravia River basin and along the Labe middle reaches.
The construction of new feeders could help resolve the lack of water in central Bohemia. The existing are insufficient in some villages around Prague where many new houses have been built in the past years.
The capital city Prague is not yet endangered by drought. Yet, Prague has started to prepare a long-term strategy of fighting climate change.
ms/dr
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