The restoration of rivers to their natural state would cost 115 billion CZK

Prague - The cost to revitalize watercourses, enabling them to better retain water during floods, would be approximately 115 billion crowns. This was stated by the Minister of the Environment, Ladislav Miko, on the Czech Television program Questions of Václav Moravec. The funding should primarily come from the state budget, with the European Union potentially contributing around seven billion crowns.
    According to the ministry's data, approximately 45,000 kilometers of rivers, streams, and brooks need revitalization, whose channels have been altered by inappropriate human intervention in the past. Floodplains overgrown with original vegetation are expected to be re-established around the watercourses, which will better retain water in the landscape and slow down flood waves.
    "We need to know the total figure so that we have a starting point," the minister stated regarding the amount. He noted that, among other things, money from European funds could be utilized, where about 260 million euros (seven billion crowns) is prepared in two areas. However, additional funds must be provided by the Czech state budget.
    According to the minister, a more significant problem than the lack of funds is often the unwillingness of landowners or river managers to cooperate. The Ministry of the Environment has had a program for river restoration since 1992, during which it has spent approximately three billion crowns. Interventions have almost exclusively been carried out on the upper reaches of small streams. "We have never reached the middle flow," the minister said.
    This year's floods in the Czech Republic hit mainly northern and central Moravia, Silesia, and northern and southern Bohemia in late June and early July. Five percent of the population and 7.5 percent of material assets in the Czech Republic are at risk from floods. The program also involved discussions on the responsibility of farmers for the landscape. "We are discussing how we could further motivate them within the existing support framework. However, the pressure should not be destructive," said Deputy Minister of Agriculture Karel Tureček.
    Experts are discussing, for example, the steepness of slopes on which so-called wide-row crops such as corn or sunflowers can still be cultivated. In contrast, grasslands hold the most water in the landscape.