Hungary uses water from fish farming to revive drought-hit land

​Fish farms in Hungary are teaming ​up with the national water ‌authority ​to use the water left in the huge pools when the fish are harvested to help irrigate drought-hit agricultural land ‌and parks.

A drought this summer during heatwave conditions across much of the continent brought river levels to record lows, disrupting everything from cargo barges to the country's Paks nuclear plant. The ‌government announced a new strategy in August which prioritised "natural water retention methods" to help ‌mitigate such droughts in future as climate change makes weather patterns more extreme and less predictable.

Traditionally, water from the pools during fish harvests was released into canals and rivers. However, in recent years, the Hungarian ⁠Aquaculture and ​Fisheries Inter-Branch Organization (MA-HAL) ⁠has redirected some of this water to local wetlands. Now, farmers and national parks have begun to ⁠request water as well, and MA-HAL said it aimed to expand the programme to all of ​its pools nationwide, which hold nearly 300 million cubic meters of water — the ⁠equivalent of 120,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.

"In 2026, our fish ponds meant the last water source for many living creatures. ⁠This ​is why it is important to widen our programme to the national level," MA-HAL head Nandor Puskas told Reuters. While the drought conditions have eased as the ⁠country has experienced more rain into the autumn, Prime Minister Peter Magyar acknowledged the urgency of ⁠the water management situation ⁠during a parliamentary session on Monday.

"We should have started this work years ago. We are late by several years. But that ‌cannot be ‌an excuse," Magyar said.