Greetings to you all. Good morning.
The reason we are here today is that the most serious and difficult phase of the defence operation has begun. Last night and around dawn today the flood wave’s highest expected level entered Hungary; and so from now on, the task of the water authorities, disaster management, the Hungarian Defence Forces, the Interior Ministry and volunteers is to escort the flood wave out from the River Lajta/Leitha at the western end of the country, southwards until it leaves Hungary towards Serbia. This period will be the most difficult in terms of defences, and will last for about a week to eight days from today. We expect the highest water level on our territory to flow out across Hungary’s southern border on Thursday next week.
The Flood Defence Operational Unit met this morning, when I listened to the reports. I will now present the most important facts, and tell you what we can expect in the next few days.
The good news is that according to the weather forecasters, who practice what is becoming a science, there will be no rain next week, or in the coming week. As we will be mounting defences during a dry spell, this means that the highest water level is now already known. We agree with the Director-General that, according to what we know today, what we have identified as the highest water level at Hungary’s western gateway will be the highest water level passing all the way through. We do not expect that it will be necessary to defend against anything higher than that – unless the weather forecasters are wrong and we suddenly get a torrential downpour. But we do not expect that. This is good news. The second piece of good news is that when the highest water level entered Hungary, all of our water defences stood the test. So I can tell you that this high water level that we are defending against does not present any new challenges for those involved in the defence operations. This is because, to the best of our knowledge, the highest water level will remain below the highest water level in 2013. From this it follows that there is no job, no task, no challenge that we have not already encountered. This will also define the nature of the defence operations, as we do not have to prepare for unexpected and extraordinary events, but for known and expected events which we have already prepared for and for which we have tried and tested defence mechanisms. Accordingly, as I have been coming downstream on the Danube, being where at any given moment the danger is always the greatest, I have seen the people involved in defence operations, I have been inspecting their work, and I can say that they are confident and calm. So the water management experts, the soldiers, the police, the emergency services and even the volunteers who are involved in the defence operations are doing their work in an extremely calm, relaxed, confident and organised manner. Perhaps you should be aware that, in terms of defences, in terms of the management of defence operations, in Hungary we have two different types of defence system. There are sections of flood defences for which the state is directly responsible, and there are stretches for which the defences are provided by local governments. In the areas protected by the state, the level of preparedness has reached 100 per cent, so in those places we are ready; and this is also true for most of the local governments. There are some local governments which are not yet at 100 per cent, but everywhere they are above 50 per cent. One of the main points at the morning session of the Operational Unit today was how to ensure optimal coordination between local government defences and state defences. We can see that this will also work. The Mayor of Budapest was also at the meeting of the Operational Unit, because Budapest is the largest settlement for which there are local government defences.
I can tell you the following facts. On Thursday we will see the highest – or almost the highest – water level ever recorded on the River Lajta/Leitha, at Mosonmagyaróvár. The crest of the Danube flood wave – not on the Lajta/Leitha, but on the Danube – is at the moment in the area of Dévény. So [the early 20th-century Hungarian poet] Endre Ady has also received the answer to the question of whether it is allowed to “break in” at Dévény: apparently it is. Today the basic data for flood defences is that we have installed them along 544 kilometres of the Danube, the Lajta/Leitha, the Rába and the Marcal. We have 127 kilometres of Level-1 defences, i.e. the lowest level of protection. There are 192 kilometres of Level-2 defences, i.e. medium protection; and 225 kilometres of Level-3 defences, the highest level of protection. After talking to the Director-General, I can tell you that we expect the water level in Budapest to crest on Saturday afternoon or evening. We expect that when it crests, the water will be 846 centimetres high. The highest recorded water level in Budapest was 891 centimetres in 2013, so there is a good chance that now the peak water level in Budapest will be 40–50 centimetres lower than that record. This also suggests that the Budapest embankments can be expected to be open again sometime in the middle to the end of next week.
As far as human resources for the defence operations are concerned, 1,288 people from the water management services are involved. Of these, 892 have been transferred from the other side of the Danube, so people from Transdanubia [in Western Hungary] are on the defences, and we have transferred 892 people from the other side of the Danube – let’s say from the Great Plain [in Eastern Hungary]. At the moment 1,677 soldiers are involved in the defence operations. From discussions with the army we know that if we need more than these 1,677 troops, they can deploy 4,000 troops every twenty-four hours. So if needed the army has the capacity to bring in 4,000 troops every twenty-four hours – but that is not expected to be necessary. There are 988 people from the emergency services involved in the defence operations, and 312 police officers – of whom 200 are law enforcement cadets. We thank them for their efforts, and I think this will also be a good school for them. And something that we rarely talk about, but I will mention it to you, is that 117 people from penal institutions are working on the defences. They are prisoners; so it is not prison guards who are helping in the defence work, but prisoners. From among the prisoners we always select those who are serving sentences for types of crime that do not pose a threat of escape, that do not present the danger of committing another crime; we use their work, and we even thank the prisoners for the work they are doing today in the defence operations. So, in total, 4,392 people are working in the defence operations.
You may have heard yesterday afternoon that we opened the emergency reservoir on the Lajta/Leitha. This is not new either, and has happened twice before. We hope – and the foregoing data gives us encouragement in this – that we can thus reduce the water level in the Lajta/Leitha by about what the water authorities say will be two decimetres; we civilians would say about 20 centimetres. On the Mosonmagyaróvár section of the Danube and at the Mosonmagyaróvár section of the Lajta/Leitha, defence operations are ongoing at twelve priority state sites: flood embankments are being increased in height, waterproof sheeting is being laid down, and low dykes are being built. The number of sandbags used in this area is 39,335. Along the stretches being defended by local governments, thirty-one priority sites are being worked on. So far, 1,421,500 sandbags have been filled, and most of them have been laid in place.
I will say a few words about what are currently the most difficult locations. Pilismarót. We know this, because we defended it in 2013. There 35,000 sandbags need to be laid in place. About 500 people are working there. The low dyke there is now less than 70 per cent complete, so we will have to work there today and tomorrow to protect the buildings on the Pilismarót floodplain. Incidentally, there is another discussion to be had about who gave permission to build houses in floodplains and why, when they are obviously difficult – in many cases impossible – to protect. But that is a task for a later date, and in any case we will try to protect the buildings on the Pilismarót floodplain. There is a difficulty with Route 11, and there are sections of it that simply cannot be defended. Here the Operational Unit has decided to open bypasses so that it is possible to travel by car despite the fact that sections of Route 11 are closed. Budapest’s Margaret Island is a difficult location, but it is not unknown, we have knowledge about it which we have to use; we have to employ the same measures that we employed in 2013. The interesting thing there is that the Chess Olympiad is being held in Budapest, and some people are staying there in the hotels on Margaret Island. And there the Interior Minister has undertaken to build a secondary line of defence from Árpád Bridge; and we hope that no one will need to be moved out of the hotels, and that the event can take place without disruption. Metro Line 2 at Batthyány Square is always a critical point. We think it will withstand the pressure. Here a relatively thin section of wall will be subjected to very high water pressure. We cannot prevent water from seeping in, but the water authorities have undertaken to divert the water towards the drainage grilles, and we will therefore get by with the minimum possible damage – and perhaps even without having to stop the Metro. We shall see. Inconvenience is to be expected, but not major problems. We are inclined to stop the suburban railway [HÉV], but that will be for the transport experts to decide; for safety reasons we will probably not operate a certain section of the HÉV. This is the situation as it stands.
I would now like to say a few words about where there will be difficult situations. There will be difficult situations in Dunabogdány, Tahitótfalu and Leányfalu. As I have said, the defences there are also more than 50 per cent complete, but we have more work to do, and so – these are areas defended by local governments – we will need volunteers, and we will have to work if we want to reach 100 per cent preparedness by the time the highest water level arrives. Vác. Around Friday we will have to close at least part of Route 2. Kismaros. This is the next difficult place, and it always is. There, too, a large number of permits have been issued for building on the floodplain, and therefore a considerable part of the settlement is located on the floodplain. Last night the defence operations were 60 per cent complete, and we really need to work hard if we want to protect those buildings. And then there is Kisoroszi; but the people of Kisoroszi are the most qualified water experts in Hungary, as even a flood of medium intensity tends to put them in a difficult situation. They know everything about this. I spoke to the Mayor the other day, and they will manage the defence operations, and Kisoroszi will be able to do what needs to be done in such a situation. We have consulted with the Serbs, because we can see when the flood wave will leave Hungary. We have asked for their cooperation, and it seems that this will be effective.
One more thing I would like to talk about is the capacity of flood defences. One of the lessons we learned from the 2013 flood is that we need to reinforce the defence structures by identifying the most critical sections. In total, after 2013, we have implemented flood defence improvements and investments across the country worth 435 billion forints. On the Danube we have implemented a 150-billion-forint development programme. This is why in locations which were critical in 2013, for example Komárom, maintaining and protecting the sections of river bank no longer requires volunteers, sandbags, low dykes or higher barriers, because the defences that have been built are ready, they work well and they hold back the water. This is an important, major success. It is now becoming apparent that when there are no floods, people do not usually attach much importance to flood protection investments, but in times such as these it is worth remembering that the construction of the Moson–Danube structure was a good decision. For some mysterious reason, water management officials call this a flood gate. It is a structure, which we handed over in 2022, which will allow us to shut major floods, Danube floods, out of the Moson–Danube branch, and thus in effect protect Győr. So today Győr is not in danger. I have already spoken about the Komárom–Almásfüzitő section, where I was a few days ago, and it is important that the Barát stream flood gate was also successfully completed, so that there the high Danube water levels cannot wash back through the stream and enter the city. A major lesson to be learnt is that, after the flood waters have receded, we should waste no time in immediately building a higher barrier at Esztergom. We could not finish it in time for the current flood, and now we are strengthening the embankments there, but I very much hope that next year we can say that it is complete. And we have a major programme worth some 40 billion forints to develop the Szigetköz tributary. But even in the present circumstances Szigetköz will manage to cope with this water level. So, all in all I can tell you that the task is clear, it is known, we should not expect any surprises, and we should do the work that we have done once before. So I can confidently say that Hungary can do this. Hungary will do it, we will mount a successful defence against this flood as well, and we will escort the water out: we will escort the highest level of water entering today from Western Hungary towards Serbia via Southern Hungary, without any major danger or trouble. The only condition for this is that our self-confidence should not turn into overconfidence, let alone arrogance, because then our concentration will falter. At the Operational Unit meeting today I asked everyone – water management experts, police officers, soldiers – to remain sharp. So we should certainly not regard this as a routine task; because while it is true that it is not an unfamiliar task, it is still a serious and difficult one. So this is a serious job that we have to do, and we have to do it with the utmost focus and attention. If we – including the Government, the water management authority, volunteers and mayors – do this, then there will be no problem. I repeat, Hungary will do this, it will complete this task as well.
Thank you very much for your attention.