The Czech government will relaunch its National Coalition Against Drought on Monday and allocate four billion crowns to combat severe water shortages, including funding for new reservoirs, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced Thursday at a press conference near the Slapy reservoir.
Babiš said the coalition would resume operations immediately, reviving a body originally established in 2018 under then-Environment Minister Richard Brabec that ceased meeting during the 2020 pandemic. Agriculture Minister Martin Šebestyán said a special law specifying 20 planned reservoirs would enter the legislative process in September, noting that no major water infrastructure has been built in the country in three decades.
The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute has classified conditions in the river basin as extreme drought, with parts of the Morava basin receiving only 50 to 70 percent of normal rainfall this year. "Water must become a public interest," Babiš said.