Good morning everyone.
There is the daily news, and I have a few summary remarks – as today is, I hope, the last occasion we will see each other for a long time. The Operational Unit is still working today. As planned for and reported, the flood wave will crest today at Mohács and then leave the country – we will escort it out nicely. From tomorrow morning the work of the Operational Unit will no longer be needed in its current form, and it will continue its work in a reduced form.
The weather forecasters are giving us encouragement. It is expected to rain this week, but it will not affect the flow of the flood wave. Yesterday the Danube crested at Baja. I have seen the news, I have spoken to our Member of Parliament there who is involved in the defence operations, and I know the location – I was there yesterday. This is Nagy-Pandur Island, which can be protected up to 850 centimetres. Now the water is at 925 centimetres. In 2013 they did exactly what they are doing now, so they have followed the flood protocol. This is a location defended by the local government, a matter of local competence, a local government decision. At such times houses built on the floodplain are attacked by the water. We have asked the local government to inform property owners in a timely manner of the further steps that need to be taken. The water is receding rapidly. After the highest water level leaves Hungary today, the health experts can step in, which is why we have Cecília Müller with us, whose work we are counting on.
During this period of ebbing water the numbers show that we defended 510 kilometres yesterday, which is 200 kilometres less than a day earlier. So life is visibly getting back to normal. At Mosonmagyaróvár the water is already more than a metre lower, at Győr it is 221 centimetres lower, at Komárom 293, at Esztergom 235, at Vác it is down 190 centimetres, at Budapest 162 centimetres, and at Baja it is more than one centimetre down. Paks has always been fine, so we have every reason to hope that at no point will the highest level breach our barrier system. The number of people involved in the defence operations is also steadily and rapidly decreasing. Yesterday we had 4,458 people involved in the defence operations, today we will have 1,847, and so we have managed to take 2,600 people out of the operations. The number of locations being defended which are considered difficult is also decreasing. There are no longer any such locations upstream of Budapest, and Budapest itself is not considered to be in danger. We are fine in Ercsi, Kisapostag is past the worst, Dunaföldvár is okay and Madocsa is okay. As I said, Paks has always been okay, because they have a much higher level of defence than anywhere else. Things are fine in Baja, apart from the flooding of Nagy-Pandúr Island: the flooding of the houses built on the floodplain there. Overall, therefore, our hope is that today we will be able to get the water that is peaking at Mohács out in an orderly fashion.
Among the summary data, I can draw your attention to the fact that in this great Danube flood of 2024 we built 40 kilometres of temporary defences. Mobile flood defence barriers were built along 4,600 metres, so more than 4.5 kilometres. We used two million sandbags, with 32,000 cubic metres of sand, equivalent to 55,000 tonnes. We have given instructions on the arrangements for the restitution work. Bags that were not used in the defence operations will be returned to municipal and state warehouses. The sand will be poured out of the bags that have not been used, and the bags themselves will be used in the next flood – which we hope will be far in the future. Bags that were built into the defences but remained above the water level are considered waste and will be destroyed. Any bags that have been in contact with the water are considered hazardous waste and will be disposed of in accordance with public health regulations. In terms of the number of people involved in the defence operations, I can say that the water management authority mobilised nearly 2,000 people, the disaster management authority 1,760, and the army 2,000, with 4,000 on 24-hour standby. It would have been possible to mobilise 4,000 more troops every day. There were 420 police officers. This low number is a good thing, because it meant that police officers did not have to be taken away from public order duties for flood defences, and this is important for public safety. We are not going to get involved in a debate over the number of volunteers. There were a lot. It is good to have as many as possible. The highest level of flood defence is Level 3, which was ordered along a total of 403 kilometres. And there is an extraordinary flood defence alert which is above Level 3 and indicates an imminent risk of flooding, which we had to order along about 40 kilometres.
I counted up how many kilometres our colleagues in the water management authority have walked since 21 September. When monitoring their assigned sections during the flood defence operations, water authority personnel walked a total of 5,500 kilometres. This 5,500 kilometres can be thought of as being approximately twice the total length of Hungary’s borders. The most important feature of the outgoing flood wave was that it showed a level difference of 6.5 metres compared to the situation before the flood. In Budapest, for example, before the flood – let’s say on 13 September – the water level was 205 centimetres, and the peak level was 830 centimetres. At Dunaújváros it stood at 60 centimetres, then rose to 677. At Baja it stood at 173 centimetres, and went up to 9 metres. On average, taking the average for our settlements, we can say that the water rose from a height of 141 centimetres to 797 centimetres – or 8 metres – in a few days. I also calculated how far I had travelled with the water. I covered 1,687 kilometres, but I had an easier time than the water management staff, because they walked and I went by car. This distance travelled during the flood defence operations would be the equivalent of me going to Tallinn. So this is how we stand.
I respectfully thank everyone for their work, including you for your work. We are grateful to the press and those working in the media for informing the Hungarian public correctly and accurately about the situation and the state of the defence operations, and without any major problems.
Thank you very much for your work.