The Water Strategy has been completed and may soon be submitted to the Government, the Ministry of Rural Development's Deputy State Secretary for Water announced at the OMÉK agriculture fair. The social debate on the Strategy, during the course of which over 1300 comments and suggestions were submitted, closed in July. The Ministry has processed the recommendations and incorporated a significant number of them into the Strategy.

Deputy State Secretary Péter Kovács said that if the Government accepts the national Water Strategy, then its implementation, the concrete measures and schedules, will form part of the Jenő Kvassay Plan, which will be launched in 2014. It is important to increase the role of the state in every area of water management, he declared.

Mr. Kovács also explained that the objectives of the National Water Strategy include sustainable water management, the protection of our waters and drought management, and it places great emphasis on irrigation development, natural water storage opportunities and landscape utilisation, while taking into account conservation and environmental criteria.

The Deputy State Secretary emphasised that water management is gaining increasing importance worldwide, and the European Union also expects every country to have its own drought management strategy. Mr. Kovács pointed out that 95 of Hungary's surface waters come from outside the country, meaning cooperation with neighbouring countries on water is of key importance.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)