The Ministry of Agriculture has extended the deadline for farmers to submit applications for subsidies in connection with the drought. Applications for additional payments to build storage reservoirs and irrigation systems will be accepted until 20th July this year. The threat of drought is increasing with each passing week. If there is no heavy rainfall in May, the agriculture sector is in danger of facing disaster. President Andrzej Duda appealed today for reasonable water management and conservation.
The president announced that his conversation on Wednesday with the Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Environment, Minister of Climate and Minister of Maritime economy and Inland Navigation concerned both water management as well as environment and climate protection. He pointed out that “drought symptoms” can already be seen in Poland and that the situation will depend in the near future on the amount of rainfall in May. The president announced that currently the humidity level of forest litter is 20 percent, and when it falls below 10 percent, then it will be necessary to introduce a ban on entering forests. He emphasized that the situation could be serious, because there is not much water in Poland. He added that the hydrological exploration program has started, amounting to PLN 300 million, and individual municipalities can use the fund for hydrological exploration.
Here is part of the statement of the president:
“At the moment there are in fact dry conditions; looking at the season of the year, it is really dry. The Vistula river is at the level of 65 centimeters. It is at a low level, although it is not yet at the level of drought, but it is very low. As far as the humidity of the forest litter is concerned, the minister of environment just informed me, it is only around 20%. In connection with that, there is no ban on forest entry yet, that ban is not yet ordered. There are dry conditions and it is getting lower, so if the forest litter humidity level drops to 10 % or less, we need to introduce that forest admission ban. It might happen soon and if we do not have any substantial rain soon, the situation might become dangerous. And, in connection with that, ladies and gentleman, I ask first of all, we ask … , for rational water management. I appeal that we start rationally managing, proverbially, the watering of our front and back yards. Such an appeal was requested by the Minister of Agriculture. He said that we need to pay attention closely to our use of water resources. In general, we need to get used to frugal water management. We do not have too much water”.