Small hydropower plants destroy rivers in Slovakia

In many countries, including in the Czech Republic, the rivers are revitalized to their natural form. In Slovakia, we are still concretizing the rivers. At the beginning of 2017, the Office of the Public Defender of Rights examined the permitting procedure for construction of small hydropower plants (SHP). Ombudsman Jana Dubovcová found that authorities are not consistent in assessing their impact on the environment. The authorities do not take into account if more power plants are built only few kilometers away from each other and act chaotically. SHP's authorization procedures violates the fundamental rights and freedoms related to the right to a favorable environment, the right to timely and complete information about the state of the environment, as well as the right to judicial and other legal protection. "Improper and, in some cases, conduct against the law of the public authorities has led to an inadequate assessment of the impact of construction of SHP on the environment and consequently on the reduction of the quality of the environment and biodiversity," the Ombudsman's office notes. Scandalous is the case of the Tekov SHP, where the construction was finally permitted, despite serious objections from nature and landscape conservation, and despite warnings by Slovenské elektrárne, Inc. (Slovak Electricity Company). The construction is planned near the waste water outlet from the Nuclear Power Plant Mochovce! Therefore, in the end of March 2017, representatives of the initiative For Living Rivers handed over to the Ministry of the Environment of the SR a petition with 20,000 signatures, asking for better rivers protection. According to Martina Paulíková, a member of the Petition Committee, they called the Ministry to develop new and environmentally friendly water management plans, to reduce the water pollution and to limit the unscrupulous interventions in flows that permanently degrade the natural character of rivers, ecosystems and landscapes. The petition calls for a new water policy for Slovakia to be "carefully considered and elaborated on the basis of the best available scientific knowledge, with stakeholders participation and in a spirit of cooperation". Economic exploitation has priority over the water protection, which represents a long term and serious threat to water. Another member of the Petitions Committee, Mikuláš Huba, expressed his concerns about the building of SHP. He stressed that the use of all profiles, although suitable for the construction of SHP from a hydro-energetic point of view, but inappropriate in all other respects, is contrary to the European Water and Habitats Directives. "We are witnessing the enormous arrogance of the power of government officials on the one hand, as well as the power of money, where the developer's interest is preferred to the public's interest," Huba said. Ecologist Ján Topercer is convinced that the river ecosystem is lacking in integrated and systematic management, the construction of the SHPs, the flood protection measures, the pollution, or the harvesting of trees, are the competencies of various, non-cooperating authorities. The Ministry of the Environment of the SR states that it has already made more strict and transparent the whole assessment process of SHPs, as stated by the spokesman Tomáš Ferenčák. The amended Strategy of Utilization of Hydropower Potential of Watercourses in the SR by 2030 sets clear rules for the assessment of a planned construction of a small hydroelectric power plant. "Every new construction project, above the power of 0.1 MW, will once again be subject to an environmental impact assessment. This means that the potential impacts of the project on river ecosystems will also be assessed. Consequently, also on the basis of this assessment, the competent authority authorizes or rejects the construction in a particular place, "said Ferenčák, according to whom the construction of SHP in protected areas or Natura 2000 sites, where water protection is subject to protection, is already forbidden. According to conservationists, the stricter process actually concerns only a small number of SHPs. Most of SHPs have already got the construction permit, so they did not need to assess their impact on the environment any more.

Location

Slovensko, Nitriansky kraj, okres Levice, Tekov

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Environmental impact

• Water pollution
• Land degradation (e.g. drought, soil contamination, erosion and desertification)
• Biodiversity loss – Ecosystem destruction
• Depletion of natural resources (fossil and mineral, forest, water, etc)
• Hazards related to extreme weather events – natural disaster
• Alteration of landscape aesthetics and built heritage

Ethical/ legal issues

• Life and personal security
• Health and well-being
• Personal and social development, economic progress and innovation
• Democratic participation to decision-making on community and national affairs

Information sources & materials

Contributor(s)

Štefan Szabó, Silvia Szabóová, SOSNA Association, Slovakia

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