Hydromeliorations

The state enterprise Hydromeliorácie plans to fell wood biomass alongside the shores of drainage canals, with a complete lenghth of almost 5,400 km

During its 134th session, the Government of the Slovak Republic approved the Concept for the revitalisation of hydromelioration networks in Slovakia. In the approved document, the plan is described as „to carry out basic repairs and maintenance of drainage canals in the remaining length of 5 338 km“.

The experiences from the years 2012 and 2013, when felling of trees occured on some 250 km of drainage canals in east Slovakia, show that what is meant as „repairs and maintenance“ is the extraction of wood biomass. The state enterprise Hydromeliorácie, in its authorisations for the companies that exracted the wood biomass alongside drainage canals, noted a clause „the contractor is required to remove the extracted wood matter at their own expenses… and further treat it with the goal of its disposal“. The wood matter, the price of which on the marke tis currently 58 €/t, was defined by the state enterprise as waste to be disposed of. In total, a surface area of 200 ha, containing at least 20 000 t of wood, was designated for felling of trees and bushes. The market price of this „waste“, handed over by the state enterprise to private contractors entirely for free, fluctuated at the level of 1,2 mil. €. For comparison, in 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Slovak Republic provided the state enterprise Hydromeliorations a subsidy at a level of 950 tis. EUR and the total incomes of the state enterprise from the lease of the hydromelioration property for 2013 represent 86 thousand EUR.

2014 concept for the revitalisation of hydromelioration networks in Slovakia

Authorisation for companies by Hydromeliorácie š.p., for the maintenance of drainage canals

As can be seen on the images, these interventions are meaningless in terms of flow rate maintenance of the drainage network. The effect is closer to the opposite, as after the older trees are felled, there is an influx of sunlight to the shorelines, leading to the growth of thick vegetation cover on the shores. This cover then actually begins to slow the flow of water through the drainage canal network.

The felling at the melioration canal near the NR Bisce in January 2013 (Trebišov district). In this case, illegal logging had also taken place directly in the Nature reserve Bisce.

Ten istý kanál v marci 2015.

A second example is the Project contract n. HM/089 – 2012/300 from 2012, established between Hydromeliorácie š.p. and the company LAND-servis, of Ing. Michal Iváň. According to this contract, the private company purchases 92,34 cubic metres of wood for 131,4 € from the state, which adds up to 1,42 €/m3 after calculation. The real price of such wood can fluctuate at a level of 40 €/m3 and higher.

Contract between Hydromeliorácie š.p. and the company LAND-Servis

Based on these experiences, we are concerned that under the proposed measure of “carrying out the basic repairs and maintenance of drainage canals at a remaining length of 5 338 km“ there is once again a hidden effort at price-free access to wood biomass in the ownership of the state. The fellings of such growths are a significant negative impact on the landscape, and are inexcusable if they occur on state properties purely because of generating income for private companies. With the stated length of canals and utilising the verified method of maintenance from the past, the state would be voluntarily ridding itself of 25 mil. EUR.