Prague, Sept 25 (CTK) – Czech Environment Minister Brabec (ANO) wants to set aside an additional three billion crowns to fight drought by the end of the year, he said in the Questions of Vaclav Moravec on public Czech Television (CT) yesterday.
He said the money will be contestable through calls.
Brabec said three billion crowns from European funds have already been spent on measures against drought since 2014.
He said he will submit to the government by the end of the year a National Action Plan of Adaptation to Climate Change which will contain 400 tasks to help alleviate the impact of climate change on the Czech Republic.
“It is a problem to maintain water in the Czech Republic, which is the roof of Europe and all water flows away from here, while no flows in. We only have precipitation water. The major task is to keep water here,” Brabec said.
Brabec said the country has a problem to keep water in forest soil and farming land which have been damaged by erosion.
He said there already exist dozens of measures to help soil and a better soaking of water, such as founding swamps and the use of rain water.
The prepared action plan is based on the Adaptation Strategy which the government approved last October and it is to ease the impact of climate change.
Brabec said the action plan contains several hundred tasks, including a timetable.
Geologist and climatologist Vaclav Cilek, who also appeared in the discussion programme, said experts have chosen one of the 400 tasks, namely care of soil.
He said farming and forest land was damaged after the end of World War Two, which was due to its transition from private to public ownership.
Brabec said his ministry has already been working on a project in support of retention of rain water.
“We consider motivating people in dry areas to place tanks for rain water in their gardens among others,” he said.
In August, the Environment Ministry withdrew from the government a draft amendment to the law on water which provided for higher fees for drawing ground water. Critics said the rise was to be up to 17 percent.
Brabec said yesterday the intention was “brutally politically abused” before the October regional elections.
“But the struggle has not yet been over.I simply believe that it is no longer possible that ground water, which is cleaner and of a higher quality and which should be a sort of reserve, be three to four times cheaper than surface water,” Brabec said.
However, he will not resume his proposal until the end of the election term in the autumn of 2017, he said.
An “anti-erosion” decree will be part of the action plan and it should take effect as from the beginning of next year, Brabec said.
He said it will follow up an amendment to the law on the protection of farming land stock and it will introduce stricter conditions, including higher sanctions.
The Environment Ministry is preparing the decree in cooperation with the Agriculture Ministry and the two ministries also work on a change to the forest law, which is to provide for a faster renovation of forest tree diversity, where spruce monocultures would no longer be dominant, Brabec said.
($1=24.096 crowns)
