The series of press trips continued on Bátya

The fourth press trip took place in Bátya on 8^th October 2020. The media staff, local residents and civil organizations’ representatives was welcomed by Csaba Fekete, Mayor of Bátya, followed by a speech from Dr. Miklós Dukai, Deputy State Secretary for Municipal Affairs (Ministry of Interior), Mátyás V. Farkas, Climate Change Expert (WWF Hungary) and Dr. László Balatonyi, Head of Department (General Directorate for Water Management). After the speeches the media staff had the opportunity to ask questions from the speakers, than the press conference was followed by an on-site media trip, where participants could take a closer look to the completed natural water retention measure.

At Bátya, the sudden downpour flooded streets and cellars. But instead of getting rid of the fallen water, the municipality decided to retain it, since the annual precipitation doesn’t exceed 550 ml, which is way more less than needed.  Within the framework of the LIFE-MICACC project the collected rainwater was channelled to a deserted cubic pit at the border of the municipality, which was used as an illegal landfill for years, thus creating an almost 1 hectare new water habitat. The freshly created lake will preserve Bátya’s water resources for drier periods by infiltrating water into the ground and will improve the microclimate by evaporating, watering the plants and moderating the effects of climate change.

Several national, regional and local medium wrote about the event, videos and podcasts were recorded. We hope that the pilot project completed in Bátya will serve as an example for all settlements and they will also implement similar natural water retention measures.

You can find several photos from the press trip in the Gallery: https://vizmegtartomegoldasok.bm.hu/en/gallery/image/61