Sawt Falasteen - Climate change, mismanagement dry up beloved Hungarian lake

"We pray for rain, but we know the whole country is facing water scarcity," said Gyorgy Simon, whose lakeside leisure company was forced to suspend sightseeing cruises in late June.

A shallow inlet where children once splashed beneath sunshades has turned into a weed-covered patch of dry land at one Velence beach, 45 kilometres (28 miles) southwest of Budapest in the town of Gardony.

The only lifeline for the area's ailing businesses is the cyclists circling the 33-kilometre route around Hungary's third-largest lake, much of which has become a cracked or muddied expanse.

"The lake's entire tourism sector is suffering, with angling facing its worst year in decades," said Imre Palinkas, the local representative of the MOHOSZ national fishing association.

"The low water level also puts the lake's ecosystem in an extremely vulnerable state. An adverse weather event... could lead to collapse," he added.

Hungary is among the countries worst affected by central and eastern Europe's recurring droughts, which scientists have long warned are being worsened and lengthened by human-driven climate change.

But environmental activist Tibor Horanyi of the Great Lakes and Wetlands Association also blames decades of flawed policies that focused on removing water from the landscape rather than retaining it.

- 'Damage control' -

"Over the past five years, the country accumulated one year's worth of rainfall deficit," Attila Szegi, spokesman for the National Directorate General for Water Management (OVF), told AFP.

He said the authorities were focusing on "damage control" for Lake Velence, which risks splitting into separate bodies of water if it evaporates further.

Last week, the OVF measured a water level of 41 centimetres (16 inches) at Gardony, the lowest since measurements began in 1931.

That said, historical documents record that the lake has previously disappeared, most recently in 1866.

"It is the type of lake that dries out from time to time, because of its shallowness and connection to the local groundwater network," hydrogeologist Anita Eross of Budapest's ELTE university told AFP.

An influx of new residents to the region over recent decades has also caused the shoreline to recede, she said.

"Many newcomers have dug wells for watering their gardens or filling their swimming pools, taking groundwater away that would otherwise feed the lake," she added.

- 'Artificial interventions' -

On the lake's north shores, a kayaking academy built by the previous nationalist government of Viktor Orban was due to be the scene of an international student canoe competition in August.

But the low ebb means the venue, built in 2024 at a cost of about 142 million euros ($162 million), will be unable to host the event.

The new pro-EU government, which replaced Orban's in May, has made the lake's restoration a priority, Viktoria Bogi, state secretary at the newly created ministry of the living environment, told AFP.

She said they were drafting new regulations under which water extraction would be subject to stricter oversight.

"The aim is to restore natural recharge sources before considering any artificial interventions," added Bogi, the ruling party's local deputy.

Suggestions to bolster its water levels include releasing treated wastewater into the lake or constructing a costly canal to the Danube some 15 kilometres away.

But many experts caution that bringing in water from elsewhere could alter the ecological balance of the naturally alkaline lake.

Zsombor Boromisza, of the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, also warned that replenishment was not a viable long-term strategy -- as Hungary's other water sources might dry up too.

"In the long run, we must prepare for the possibility that we might not be able to bring water from other parts of Hungary," the landscape architect warned.

D.Khalil--SF-PST