A period of permanent water shortage has been announced

Based on hydrometeorological conditions and forecasts, the National Chamber of Agriculture (NAK) and the Association of Hungarian Farmers’ Associations and Farmers’ Cooperatives (MAGOSZ) initiated the announcement of a permanent water shortage period at the Ministry of the Interior at the beginning of April. After that, the Minister of the Interior ordered the announcement of a period of permanent water shortage starting on May 24, 2024.

Based on the data series of the National Drought Map, the National Meteorological Service, and the indications of the NAK county organizations, the entire territory of our country was affected by the water deficit condition at the beginning of April. Although the rains at the end of April and beginning of May replenished the soil somewhat, after barely 2 weeks, severe drought again characterized the vast majority of our agricultural areas in a significant part of May. The long Whitsun weekend did bring precipitation, but at the same time, in view of the fact that monthly heat records have been broken all over Europe in the past 1 year, as well as the fact that long-term meteorological models predict that we are looking at a hotter and drier summer than average – which cause a serious evaporation loss to the domestic water economy -, NAK and MAGOSZ maintained the necessity of declaring a period of permanent water shortage, especially with regard to creating the possibility of emergency irrigation.