WARSAW: A group of Hungarian lawmakers and representatives of NGOs met on Wednesday on a dried-out sandbank of the country’s second river after the Danube to highlight the severe impact of a drought in July and August that damaged key crops.

Water levels in the Tisza river dropped sharply after repeated heatwaves which also hit other European countries in what the EU’s climate change monitoring service says was the Northern Hemisphere’s hottest summer since records began.

In Poland, the level of its longest river the Vistula, has fallen to a record low, the meteorological office said, leaving sandbanks exposed in Warsaw.

Hungary’s Homokhatsag region, which is near where members of the country’s parliamentary committee on sustainable development and the NGO representatives met, is a key agricultural area, growing corn, grain and sunflowers that has been battling with severe droughts for years.

“Policymakers still have not woken up to the fact that water is our most important treasure and today’s mistaken water management threatens our future,” the committee chair and an independent opposition MP Laszlo Lorant Keresztes said.

He warned that Hungary “would dry out” unless measures are taken to preserve as much water as possible with efficient water management.

Lawmakers of the ruling Fidesz party who have a large majority on the committee, boycotted the meeting – which lacked a quorum. The agriculture ministry did not send a representative either. The Fidesz parliamentary group said in a statement that they believed the meeting was “unnecessary”.

Hungary’s Minister for Agriculture said on Sept. 5 that farmers had reported that drought damaged 390,000 hectares of sown land by early September, with maize severely affected on 235,000 hectares, which is more than 25% of all planted areas.

Data from the Hungarian Meteorological Service shows that in the past 90 days, the Homokhatsag region had received around 120-140 millimetres less rain than average. Substantial rainfall was expected over the weekend.

Agencies

Agencies