Hungary, situated in the Carpathian Basin, is geographically gifted to be rich in freshwaters. Surrounded by mountains, all runoff flows towards its low plains, creating and nourishing a once so unique aquatic wildlife. Since the beginning of times, people living here adapted to this environment: their livelihoods were intimately linked to freshwater habitats. But population growth, industrialization, and the agricultural boom of the 19th century fed the demand for ever more arable land. In this novel economic order, wetlands were merely seen as unproductive wastelands, and so begun their systematic eradication, well before science could have understood their true value and irreplaceability. “The young men of the Communist Youth Movement determined, that the unfertile bogs of ‘Hanság’, home to frogs and mosquitos, should be converted to rich croplands!” For five decades, they fought to drain the boggy-swampy lands, so harmful to human health…” “On a thousand acres, reedy-boggy swamps lay till this day…. “ “In 1954, plans were layed out to drain the hundred-thousand acres of waterlogged land." “In two weeks, they excavated 11000 cubic-meters of soil...” “Constructed by the joint effort of citizens and state, the canal draining the water of the Csukás-lake was opened.” “At last, water is pouring down the principal canal!” “There are many more waterlogged areas in this country. The example of Kiskunhalas could be followed elsewhere too.” WASTED WATERS The first, well known step down this path was the regulation of the large rivers to reclaim their floodplains, commencing in the 19th century. This was followed by the drainage of the remaining wetlands in the 20th century. Today, ‘Homokhátság’, that is the Sandridge between the Danube and the Tisza rivers is a part of Hungary that is classified as ‘semi-arid’ by the UN. On its eastern flank, remainders of the ancient ‘Zagyva’ riverbed can be seen in a cropland dominated landscape. In late wintertime, water trickling down the Sandridge gathers here in the depressions. According to the century-old doctrine, this water is viewed as ‘excess water’, and the goal is to get rid of it as soon as possible, in order to protect arable lands from inundation. Even when it is not an arable plot itself, but a soda-lake that existed here once upon a time. In the drought prone landscape, every wetland is crisscrossed by trenches. These all lead to a larger canal, which in turn flows into one of the principal canals. The length of the drainage canal system in Hungary is 46 000 km. Combined, they are longer than Earth’s equator. Saline lake at Alföld The canals drained the water The lake and its surroundings dried up The water that is drained from the Lódri-lake by the Domaszéki principal canal from autumn to springtime, is badly missed during the summer month. So much, that water for irrigation has to be pumped here at great costs from the Tisza river, through an underground pipe system. If these wetlands would not be continuously drained, but instead, their immense storage spaces were utilized to retain water by blocking the canals cutting through them, perhaps we could save millions. This of course requires careful planning, and deliberation with affected parties both upstream and downstream. The responsibility of dessicating the landscape does not lie exclusively with past generations. This wet orchid meadow near Monorierdő for example is being drained by a new trench, excavated in 2024. “What for?” – one might ask. Well, for the exact same reason as it has been done in the past two centuries: to satisfy the currently prevailing economic and social needs. While in the old times, it was hunger for arable lands that drove lowland drainage works, the remaining wetlands today fall victim to green field investments, such as new solar park constructions. While the transition to green energy is clearly an urgent and pivotal duty, it should not bring about the destruction of remaining freshwater habitats. The Sandridge of the Homokhátság is the remainder of the sediment deposited by the Danube in prehistoric times. Its western side slopes towards the Danube, while the eastern side slopes towards the Tisza river. Its canal network, stretching nearly 5000 kilometres, once served the purpose of draining wetlands and excess water. Today, most of them are dry throughout the year. In a natural, unmodified landscape, the level of subsurface waters more or less follows the topography of the terrain. During rainfall, water partly infiltrates into the ground and elevates the water table, partly gathers in surface depressions. Freshwater habitats, ranging from wet meadows to permanent lakes that came to being in these locations may be fed both by surface and subsurface waters. This system changes when wetlands are cut through by drainage canals. During heavy rainfall, the canals can fill up and even recharge the subsurface water resources briefly, but on a long term they act as discharge zones, and drain surface and subsurface waters from the landscape. This process contributed to the gradual drying of the region, marked by the sinking of the water table, which exceeds -7 meters in some locations. Other drivers behind this phenomenon include the shift in precipitation patterns brought about by climate change, the riverbed incision of Danube and Tisza rivers, uncontrolled groundwater extraction from wells for irrigation, wasteful agricultural practices, and the unwisely stimulated reforestation projects that lead to increased evaporation of subsurface water resources. In the process, even wetlands we never attempted to drain directly, disappeared. The reason is that on a regional scale too, the water table roughly follows the terrain. Due to gravity, water flows from higher regions to lower grounds. A steeper sloping water table results in a more intense flow below the surface. If canals drain water from a wetland at the base of the Sandridge, throughout time, this brings about a faster flow from higher areas, depleting the water table at the more distant parts of the region as well. As such, the draining effect of canals impact an entire region through the subsurface system of waterflows. The victim of this invisible underground process is lake 'Kondor' situated in the heart of the Sandridge (Homokhátság), An old staff gauge reminds us of water depths that exceeded one meter some decades ago. On a small mound in the middle, a fisherman’s hut can still be found, which was often accessible by boat only. In western Hungary, precipitation is still more abundant. Close to the Austrian border, around lake ‘Fertő’ and the ‘Hanság’ on a rainy spring day. Everything is fresh and green. There are a few who know however, that this land used to be blue, not green. The ‘Hanság’ was completely drained by the middle of the 20th century. The rivers of Ikva, Répce, Kis-Rába and Rábca that previously levelled out and meandered through here without a clearly defined riverbed, were canalized. The patches of open water disappeared entirely. The wetland, once covering some 300 square kilometres is gone, today its place is mostly taken by cropland and hybrid poplar plantations. Immense wetlands were drained in eastern Hungary too. The peatlands around the city of Nagyecsed, once three times the size of the artificially created lake of ‘Tisza-tó’, disappeared without a trace. The combined size of the swamps of ‘Kis- and Nagy-Sárrét’ were even larger than that. Their place today is taken by a cropland-dominated, dry landscapes. In highlands, the straightening and canalization of small streams has an impact comparable to drainage works undertaken on the lowlands. The valleys in between the benign slopes of ‘Somogy’ county were trenched, draining the free-flowing waters that stopped to spread out here and there. In and around settlements, water and sediment is rushing down too quickly in the paved and canalized streambed, causing problems further downstream. Water has less time to infiltrate, which worsens the water shortage in the landscape. Still, many settlements continue to pave and canalize streams, and engage in watershed control works that damage habitats, and cut the natural connection between water, soil and landscape. To counter the drying effect caused by straightened streams and drainage canals, solutions exist: slow the flow, retain the water, increase infiltration into the ground. The path down that road is literally a winding one… When sufficient free space is available along the streams, the first step is removing pavements, and levelling the embankments along the watercourse. The deeply incised streambed can then be blocked using natural materials. The force of flowing water will take care of the rest. This is exactly what happened at the ‘Csömöri’ stream. In the outskirts of Csömör municipality, there was enough space available to set the small stream free again. Small meanders appeared within a single year, thanks to the partial blocking of the deep streambed, which retains water and slows the flow. A single wind-toppled tree trunk can bring about significant changes: above it the streambed widens, the current spreads out its sediment. Groundwater levels respond and increase immediately. The stream and its surroundings buzzles with life again. ‘Doesn’t that increase flood risk?’ Well, it does. The stream may flood here. But if sufficient space is available for a floodplain, this is no problem. Water can infiltrate, and replenish groundwater again. Perhaps, other sections of the Csömöri stream could undergo similar restoration. The ‘Boronka’, one among the many canalized streams of Somogy county, went through something similar. The Duna-Dráva National Park blocked the straightened streambed with low earth bunds. While getting around these, the stream spreads its water in shallow pools on the surrounding pastures. Aquatic life, vegetation, and the local micro-climate are all improved by the restoration. There is a species on this planet which has 30 million years of advantage on us in regulating small streams. It is also referred to as an ecosystem engineer: the beaver. In Hungary, beavers were hunted to extinction by the mid 1800’s. They were completely absent till the 1990’s, when they began to recolonize from the west. Some individuals were even reintroduced as part of a coordinated effort. Today, they again inhabit streams all around the country. Beavers aim to place the entrance of their lodge underwater. When water levels are too shallow, or fluctuate too much, they construct a beaver dam using mud and branches. Above the dam, water spreads out to create wetlands, which will provide habitat to numerous other species. On regulated, straightened, incised streambeds, the appearance of a beaver dam can be equivalent to a full restoration: microclimate, groundwater levels, and biodiversity improve immediately. In some places, where economic harm done by the beaver dam is dwarfed by the benefits, beaver dams are spared from destruction more and more often. If flood risk management perspectives dictate flooding to be controlled by all means, it is best to place a pipe into the dam. If the arising water level suits the beavers too, they will even support our work by lodging the pipe into the dam. Alike to straightened streams, drained lowlands can be restored. The ‘Hanság’ was drained, but in the beginning of the 21st century, the Fertő-Hanság National Park implemented several habitat restoration and water retention projects here. The ‘Nyirkai-hany’ wetland was created in 2001. The water of the 4 km2 freshwater habitat is sourced from the drainage canals and the Rábca river. The ‘Osli-hany’ was created much later, in 2013. The immense wetland once stretching all the way to lake ‘Fertő’ regained a few small patches from its historic beauty. In the 1990’s, the salt marshes of ‘Mekszikópuszta’ became floodable again through the Hanság-principal canal. Since then, it was delineated as Natura2000 site, became protected under the Ramsar-convention, and was awarded biosphere reserve and UNESCO World Heritage status. By restoring wetlands, we also regain some of the atmospheric moisture lost through drainage. The water vapour of wetlands feeds the so-called small water cycle, where local evaporation results in local precipitation. The more wetlands we restore, the more precipitation can be expected from this source. With the onset of climate change, precipitation patterns are shifting. Precipitation is increasingly more likely during summer and winter, instead of spring and autumn. It would be wise to adopt to these changed circumstances, and place water retention into the forefront of water management. This does not necessarily require expensive new investments. It is necessary however to revise the laws regulating the duties related to water management, and to modify the rules of operation of already existing drainage canals: as of today, wintertime operation rules dictate that canals are open, and water is drained. These regulations should be revised, and where possible, canals should be closed to retain water all year around. At the ‘Ábrahámszéki’ saline lake near Domaszék, water retention commences early in the winter in the lake that was previously cut through by drainage canals. Closed flood gate Reversed direction of the water flow The water swells back up and reaches the water outlet structure The water flows out onto the previously dry meadow The shallow water can provide resting and feeding ground for birds, breeding site for fishes and amphibians. By summer, the dry lakebed can provide rich grass and hay for grazing animals. The soda pans at Jászkarajenő were also revitalized by simple canal closure. The Duna-Ipoly National Park blocked canals at over a dozen locations between the capital city and the Tisza river. They applied the same principle everywhere: the sluices are closed, and lands along the canal are inundated by excess water. Drainage canals were key drivers behind the loss of wetlands and biodiversity. But today, they often provide the last refugia for aquatic plants and animals in an otherwise dry landscape. Filling them up with soil completely would therefore be a mistake. It would not only eradicate the last bits of wet habitats, but would also be expensive and dangerous, since the ability to control flows would be lost. Simply blocking the canals at certain points, moving from upstream to downstream would suffice. Sluices can ensure that waters are not drained, and the habitat corridors continue to function. And if climate change brings about exceptionally wet years again, the water retention canals can fulfil their original purpose again, and drain excess water. "If we could inundate that grassland over there, well that would be great as well...." And Áron, you also mentioned that we could direct some water towards the 'Nyilas-összekötő', and that would be a dream for us too, cause we have placed the sluices there..." "(...) and from here, it's not gonna' flow that far.. - No, you are right, it won't... Yes, that's what I'm saying, cause these canals have quite a steep sloping." Step by step the view of all stakeholders is beginning to shift. A field visit at ‘Törtel’, by the eastern slopes of the Sandridge is a nice example of that. A ranger of the Duna-Ipoly National Park, a colleague of the Közép-Tisza-vidéki Water Management Directorate, and a local farmer discusses the potential options to block the canal and retain its water on agricultural lands. If the project is to move forward, all three must give their consent, and strike an agreement. This is important, because it is insufficient to just retain water on plots managed for nature conservation, where “nobody cares”. To solve the large-scale problem, it is crucial that farmers and landowners take a role, and show willingness to retain water wherever it is possible. Perhaps, there is more and more of us who finally begin their work on water retention. At smaller or larger scale, step by step, we will put an end to the drying of Hungary. WASTED WATERS Narration: Bori Szendőfi Writer, director, photography: Balázs Szendőfi Produced by WWF Hungary Foundation The project is financed by the European Union’s LIFE programme, and co-financed by the Hungarian State. The views and opinions expressed in this film are those of the creators, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the European Union or the Hungarian State.