Prague, Dec 12 (CTK) – The Czech Republic is considering transferring water from the Danube to the Vltava River in order to defend itself against the long-lasting extreme drought, daily Lidove noviny (LN) wrote on Saturday.
The shortage of water may be soon become an acute threat to the Czech Republic, LN writes.
Hence its considering the idea that the Vltava or Labe (Elbe) Rivers may get water through a channel from the Danube, it adds.
Thanks to the rivers in the Alps, the Danube River does not suffer from any shortage of water, LN writes.
If a channel were built, the European regions rich in water would be connected with those suffering from its shortage in the Czech Republic, Saxony and Poland, it adds.
There may be two projects, LN writes.
First, a water corridor starting in the Bavarian town of Jochenstein, continuing through the Sumava Mountains down to the Predny Vyton (Vorder Heuraffl in German) village near the big Lipno water reservoir on the upper Vltava.
Or the channel will link the Vltava with the Danube in Aschach in Upper Austria, it adds.
Second, it is the generally-known Danube-Odra-Labe channel that would start near Devin in western Slovakia and continue across southern and central Moravia up to the Labe, LN writes.
“When the amount of water is insufficient in Europe, the Danube water will be vital for us,” Josef Podzimek, a proponent of the project, is quoted as saying.
“This is why we have to conduct diplomatic talks with Slovaks and members of the Danube Alliance to make them recognise the needs of the Czech Republic, Saxony and Poland and to let them materialise the transfers,” he added.
The projects that would cost billions of crowns are supported by a group of experts, but there is still the question whether the government will give a go-ahead to them.
However, the government has taken interest in them and had a feasibility study drafted, LN writes.
“The Czech Republic is the only EU member that is not directly linked with any sea by a quality water route,” Podzimek said.
Despite the objections that the Lipno-Danube channel is too Utopian, if not absurd, it was listed as one of the projects for which the Czech Republic would like to get European money last year.
Officials say it was a sort of attempt that has hardly any chance of succeeding now, LN writes.
The Danube-Odra-Labe water project, strongly supported by President Milos Zeman, has gone much farther. The state is now analysing its feasibility study. The water corridor started to be built on the Labe after 1901 and with some pauses the construction continued well into the second half of the 20th century, LN writes.
To face the recurring droughts, the Czech Republic also wants to build new water reservoirs.
In the Morava River basin, the study of five new water reservoirs is being prepared, while in the Labe River basin, as many as nine are being envisaged, LN writes.
Thanks to the projects, a sufficient amount of water is to be collected to face the expected climate change, LN writes.
