NGO wants to create Czech sea by inundating mining area

Prague, Sept 25 (CTK) - The More klidu civic group has proposed that a sea be created in north Bohemia by inundating the vast, partly abandoned brown coal mining pits with salt water led in from the Baltic Sea, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Tuesday.

"Maybe it looks bold and even ridiculous, but we are serious about it," says Jan Plisek, a member of More klidu, which in Czech means "sea of tranquility" and is derived from the Mare Tranquillitatis, the place where the U.S. astronauts stepped on the Moon for the first time in 1969.

The Czech sea is to be created in the area around the north Bohemian town of Most, which many describe as a "lunar landscape" in view of its devastation by brown coal mining, with numerous open pits, both abandoned and still operating.

The present inundation of some pits and the creation of lakes is insufficient, according to Plisek.

"A general plan is lacking. That is why we're seeking experts to seriously consider our vision," he said.

More klidu has prepared two variants of its plan. The more modest of them reckons with the sea spreading on 20,000 hectares and having 60-km-long shore.

The bolder and utopian variant reckons with the sea taking up 60,000 hectares, whose shore would be 120 km long, MfD writes.

The sea, the first in the Czech Republic that is an inland state, would have genuine salt water, as the pits would be inundated with water conducted by a pipeline from the Baltic sea.

The implementation of the project depends on how long the coal would continue being mined in the north of Bohemia, Plisek says. He estimates the region's map to change accordingly in 20 to 30 years.

Plisek dismissed the speculation that the idea is merely a joke, which experts addressed by MfD said they suppose.

Experts said the plan is unfeasible both economically and technically.

The north Bohemian region has already decided on the way to re-cultivate the abandoned pits. They will be gradually inundated with fresh water and the region will become a landscape of lakes, regional councillor Radek Vonka is quoted as saying.

Plisek, nevertheless, insists that the technical aspect is the easiest of all to cope with.

"In Libya, they have thousands of kilometres of water pipelines reaching the Sahara. During the floods in New York, they used a pump drawing 600 cubic meters of waters in a second," Plisek pointed out.

As for the costs of the new sea, they would be comparable with those of the present recultivation, he added.