President János Áder has announced that Hungary is setting up a nearly 200 million euro fund for water management development.
During his speech at the World Water Week in Stockholm, the president said the fund is aimed at aiding the implementation of technological innovations. He added that it will raise efficiency in infrastructure development by cutting the time for executing projects and boosting the return on investments.
Commenting on a report by the UN's Intersecretariat Group for Water Resources, also known as UN-Water, President Áder backed the body’s call to triple the annual funding for water investment of about 200 million USD a year. The president said the move would be necessary to stop the looming water crisis.
President Áder said a new approach would also be needed to incorporate the value of water into policy and financial decisions. “Prevention is much more important than damage control,” he added.
The president said the most water-dependent sector is agriculture and highlighted a Hungarian innovation that improves the water balance of soil, reducing draught damage and pollution. He noted the Eindhoven biological water purification plant, which was built through Dutch-Hungarian cooperation. Its investment and operating costs are about 25-30 percent smaller than those of an average plant, he said.