Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2016 (96. évfolyam)
2016 / 3. szám - HISTORICAL SNAPSHOT - Papp Mária - Ritvayné Szomolányi Mária - Szalay Miklós - Nagy-Kovács Zsuzsanna Ágnes: Water supply in Hungary
16 Hungarian Journal of Hydrology Vol. 96. No. 3. 2016. Water Supply in Hungary Mária Papp*, Mária Ritvayné Szomolányi**, Miklós Szalay***, Zsuzsanna Ágnes Nagy-Kovács**** * Freelance expert, associate professor ( papp2113@gmail.com ) ** Ministry of the Interior, Hungary ( maria.szomolanyi@gmail.com ) *** Central Directorate of Water Management, Hungary **** Quc]apest Waterworks, Hungary Abstract Due to the favourable hydrogeological circumstances, Hungary has a solid access to renewable water resources, which could provide about 10 000-nrVcapita/year water availability for different usages. While the country’s surface waters originate dominantly (96%) from upstream countries, and thus the country is susceptible to impacts coming through the border, the public water supply is based almost exclusively on subsurface water resources, which are much more secured internally. This paper focuses on public water supply issues of Hungary. It discusses first, what water resources the country can use. In the second part of the paper, a concise overview is given about the history, current status and some future perspectives of the public water supply industry in Hungary. Keywords Public water supply, water balance, water abstraction, water consumption INTRODUCTION This paper intends to give an overview about the public water supply situation in Hungary. The advent of the organised public water supply in the country - first mostly in larger cities - is dated back to the 17th-18th century. Due to the favourable hydrogeological circumstances of Hungary water resources for public water supply were accessible almost everywhere in the country. First, the paper gives a short overview of surface and subsurface water resources in term of overall water balance of the country with some discussion on main water usages. This is followed with a view on what could be expected in middle term when climate change is taken into account. In the second part of the paper we briefly introduce the historical development of public water supply, the current service level in terms of utility gap, organisational structures of service providers, tariffs, etc., and at the end we discuss the aspects of longer term sustainability of public water supply in the country. SURFACE WATER RESOURCES Hungary is situated in the middle of the Danube River Basin, lying at the bottom of the Carpathian basin, which is constituted largely of lowland areas. The Danube, which on its 2850 km way from the Black Forest to the Black Sea, collects water from the territory of 19 countries, is the most international river in the world. Everything that happens upstream from Hungary is reflected in the Danube, be it its water quality, quantity, alluvium or wildlife. Of the 7 countries Hungary borders with, 6 are upstream from us. With the exception of 3 smaller rivers, all our major watercourses come from beyond our borders and leave through three main rivers (Danube, Tisza and Dráva). Hungary’s exposure is indicated by the fact that 96% of our surface water resources is of foreign origin. Every year, an average of 109 km3 of water reaches our country through watercourses, and the 600 mm annual precipitation falling on the territory of Hungary is 56 km3. Of this, 48 km3 of water evaporates, 3.3 km’ infiltrates into the soil and feeds subsurface waters and 4,6 km3 makes its way to watercourses. The rivers leaving the country carry an average of 116 km3 of water annually. The distribution of surface water resources in the territory of Hungary is uneven both in space and time. 70% of the overall runoff is concentrated in the watercourses in the Western part of the country, namely in the catchment areas of the Rivers Danube and Dráva, whereas the River Tisza, whose catchment area covers nearly half of the country, only gathers 30%. The temporal unevenness is even more apparent. In summer, at the time of the greatest water demand, the River Tisza and its tributaries carry only 28% (246 m3/s) of their average water discharge of 854 m3/s, whereas the Danube and the Dráva combined, characterized by much more balanced flow rates, carry an average of 1996 m3/s, 70% of their average flow of 2835 m3/s. Precipitation is unevenly distributed: the East of the country generally receives less. What is more, in the south of the Great Plain, where the number of sunny hours is higher than the national average, the evaporation and precipitation ratio may be as high as 1.5. This increases the probability of droughts, which generally occur in Hungary every 3-5 years. SUBSURFACE WATER RESOURCES With a few exceptions, the spatial distribution of groundwater resources is much more even. In the territory of Hungary, 3.3 km3 of water infiltrates into groundwater aquifers annually, with an additional 0.16 km3 of groundwater flowing in through national borders. Hungary’s geothermal conditions are rather favourable. This means that in our country, it is sufficient to drill into smaller depths for the temperature to rise by 1 degree than in other parts of the world. In about 80% of Hungary’s territory, thermal water of a temperature over
