No need to pay agricultural water service fees this year either

At the initiative of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Water Management – ​​of which the NAK and MAGOSZ are also members – agricultural producers will not have to pay for irrigation water this year either. According to the government decision, agricultural producers will also be exempted from the obligation to pay agricultural water service fees in 2026. The state compensates agricultural water service providers for the loss of income arising from this from the central budget.

The agricultural water service fee consists of two parts

On the one hand, the basic fee ensuring the availability of water (including, among others, the maintenance of water facilities, fuel, labor and material costs, as well as the costs of obligations and inspections prescribed by law), and on the other hand, the variable fee related to the actual water use (for example, pumping costs). Detailed information on the water resource contribution and agricultural water service fees is available on the NAK portal. As a rule, from 2021, agricultural water users will pay 100 percent of the variable fee and 50 percent of the basic fee, the remaining part of the latter being assumed by the state in the long term. However, irrigated farmers will also benefit from full state fee coverage this year. It is important to note that the exemption only affects producers who irrigate their agricultural areas from surface water under a water rights operation permit or extraordinary irrigation water use.

As a result of the hard work of recent years, significant progress has been made in domestic water management

The previous practice, which was primarily based on remediation, has been replaced by a new approach, the essence of which is to treat winter surplus water and surface water not as a problem, but as a resource. Water retention interventions that fit into the landscape are receiving increasing emphasis. The flooding of the offered agricultural areas is ongoing, and has already been implemented on more than 4 thousand hectares, but the size of the offered production area is approaching 30 thousand hectares. All this plays a significant role in the stability of the water management and water cycle, thereby reducing drought damage. The practice of inland water management has also become climate-compatible: more than 5,000 canal sections have currently been closed in order to retain water. In addition, those inland water canals were surveyed where, with minor intervention, water could be preserved in the landscape on an additional 10,000 mkm. Although there was no significant flood, the water sector also started to fill backwaters from the smaller flood waves that receded at the beginning of the year. The results show that cooperation between sectors and shaping social attitudes can together achieve real and lasting change in the field of domestic and agricultural water management. The results show that cooperation between sectors and shaping social attitudes can together achieve real and lasting change in the field of domestic and agricultural water management.

NAK