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
20 Hungarian Journal of Hydrology Vol. 96. No. 3. 2016. 83%. Another consequence was that by creating community water supply, the difference between the amount of produced water and invoiced water became greater; that is, the utility gap opened wider and wider. After the political transition in 1989, one of the greatest tasks was to put an end to this. When Hungary joined the European Union, these issues were brought more to the foreground. Consequently, the current and future key issues of the public water supply service will inevitably be modified (Bethlendi and Füstös 2008). In other parts of the world, there are huge problems in the water supply area. According to different international surveys, 25 thousand people die daily due to water shortage in different comers of the world and two and a half billion people have no access to healthy drinking water. Besides, the freshwater supply of the world is continually shrinking. The decrease of freshwater poses a problem in developed countries as well, which is partly the result of an increase in consumption and partly of human activity that adversely affects the environment. In Hungary, the situation is slightly better, but we still face challenges. Although the country’s available water resources are above the European average, we are poorly supplied with locally generated surface water. The vast majority of our surface waters come from the catchment area of the Rivers Danube and Tisza outside our national borders and also leave Hungary in due course. The situation is much more favourable with respect to subsurface waters, as there are protected water resources in the Kisalföld (Small Plain) and the Nagyalföld (Great Plain), which are significant even in European comparison. Figure 6. Regions of subsurface water resources where the water quality does not conform to EU standards for drinking water use (Note: Arzén: arsenic: Nitrát + nitrit: Nitrate + nitrite; Vas + mangán: Iron + manganese; Egyéb (ammonium, bár, fluorid, jodid): Other (ammonium, boron, fluoride, iodine): Nincs szennyezés = no pollution; Egyéb vízszennyezők: Other water pollutants) Challenges for the future • to secure the operating and long-term water bases • to solve the quality problems of drinking water supply • to gradually catch up with developed European countries with respect to sewage disposal and waste water treatment while also protecting our water base • to develop a service structure appropriate to new regulations • to develop a system of tariffs based on consumption and expenditure. In order to achieve the objectives of community water management, the state must assume a greater role in the future. This would improve the asset management of water facilities and the condition of the water supply networks as well as compliance with EU regulations. Hungary must fulfil her obligations set out in the 98/83/EC Drinking Water Directive and fully implement the Programme for the Improvement of Drinking Water. (Key parameters are arsenic, boron, fluoride and nitrite. A further specific key parameter for Hungary is ammonium given in the Government Decree 201/2001 (25 October) on drinking water quality requirements and monitoring procedures). Two regions that needed the most to implement the necessary developments are the Northern Plain and the Southern Plain Region (Fig. 6), where in booth regions major water quality improvement measures were carried out lately. Some 1.2 million people are affected in the Southern Plain, 700 thousand in the Northern Plain and 260 thousand in Southern Transdanubia. All in all, two hundred communities take part in the programme. In other regions of Hungary, fewer communities are affected by drinking water quality problems. In the above-named regions, drinking water is supplied from subsurface waters and the arsenic, boron, ammonia and fluoride present in it are of geological origin. As of 2007, the implementation of investments is aided by tenders called for by the Environment and Energy Operative Programme. Investments have typically been and remain to be co-financed from three sources: EU funds, government budget funds and mandatory own contribution. Due to Hungary’s special hydrogeological feature, our drinking water supply is largely based on water bases installed on subsurface water resources. This feature constitutes a priority task at the same time. A substantial part of water bases is situated in vulnerable geological environments. Therefore the Government, in its Decree 2249/1995 (31 July), took measures to protect drinking water bases. This scheme has been in operation since 1996. In Hungary, the standards were EU conform regulations even before joining the European Union. In 1998, the limits were further tightened. Drinking water quality needs to be improved for over two million people in nine hundred communities in Hungary (Fig. 7). The EU has extended the deadline for the implementation of the Programme to Improve Drinking Water Quality (URL1). At the time of the political system change in 1989, the length of the total water network in Hungary was 48 500
