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Drought chokes agriculture. 13 provinces still struggling with it

Susza dławi rolnictwo. 13 województw wciąż się z nią boryka

– Taking into account the indicator of unit water resources, in Poland we have water resources similar to those of the Czech Republic or Belgium, but much smaller than countries located further north, such as Norway – says Dr. Jarosław Suchożebrski, hydrologist from the Department of Hydrology at the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies of the University of Warsaw, to the Newseria Biznes agency.

Poland is one of the EU countries with the smallest resources of drinking water. In Europe, the average amount of water per capita is about 5 thousand m3 per year. In our country, on the other hand, it is almost three times lower and amounts to about 1.6 thousand m3 of water, but in periods of drought, its amount drops to even 1.1 thousand m3, which is well below the threshold of the so-called water stress.

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Most often, this measure is given by dividing the annual sum of river runoff by the number of inhabitants, which gives about 1.6 thousand m³ and this is really bad, it places us at the end of the European ranking. However, in wet years this indicator is 2-2.1 thousand m³ per person per year and this is already quite good – explains Dr. Jarosław Suchożebrski.

– However, this does not take into account groundwater resources, landscape retention, and retention in reservoirs. Therefore, another measure, also often used, is the comparison of total net water resources – i.e. from all these sources – to actual consumption. On average, we use a dozen or so percent of these water resources. However, the critical value is considered to be 20 percent, and if a given country uses this much, it will have a problem with water resources. In periods like the present, in some regions of our country, we approach and sometimes slightly exceed these 20 percent, but the multi-year average is still favorable.

However, the expert points out that the situation will worsen in the coming years, mainly due to ongoing climate change and high water consumption.

– Climate change is inevitable and there is a consensus here that our climate is changing. As a result, we can probably – and this is indicated by available research – expect more dry days, and at the same time more heavy, violent rainfall. The most visible effect of climate change is and will be the increasing violence of atmospheric phenomena, more frequent storms and gales, and periods of long-term drought will alternate with heavy rainfall causing local floods and flooding. This will also affect our water resources. However, it must be remembered that heavy storms do not improve the condition of our water resources, because the water that falls to the surface on this occasion drains away very quickly. Therefore, in the future, we expect increasingly smaller available water resources in Poland – assesses the UW expert.

As he points out, despite dwindling resources, Poland is not currently at risk of long-term water shortages, although there are periods when water consumption must be limited. However, droughts, which occur almost every year, are becoming increasingly common.

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– There are several types of drought. It starts with atmospheric drought, when there is simply no rain for a long time. It turns into soil drought, which is most often associated with high temperature, with high evaporation of water from plants and soil. As a result, there is a lack of water in the soil, agricultural drought develops and plants start to dry out. The next stage is hydrological drought, when the resources of flowing water decrease and we have lower levels and lower river flows. Small rivers can dry out, as can small reservoirs or wetlands. In such a situation, there may be a lack of water for some industries or for agricultural irrigation. However, the final, worst type of drought is hydrogeological drought, when our groundwater resources decrease – says Dr. Jarosław Suchożebrski.

All these types of droughts are interdependent, and everything starts with the lack of rainfall. In principle, we could say that now in some regions of the country we are dealing with all types of drought, because it has not rained for quite a long time, you can see drought in the fields, small rivers are drying up and the level of underground water has decreased – he adds.

In Poland, 13 voivodeships are currently struggling with agricultural drought, which has already caused serious losses in crops. According to the latest forecast developed by the Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation – National Research Institute (IUNG-PIB), from 21 June to 20 August this year, the average value of the climatic water balance for the country was negative and amounted to -79 mm. The IUNG-PIB data also show that the regions most affected by drought are the Masovian Lowland, the Podlasie Lowland and Polesie, where the water deficit was much greater and ranged from -160 to -219 mm. In this case, the reason was lower rainfall, which in June in Warmia and Mazury amounted to 60 to 100 percent of the norm, and in July in Masovia and Wielkopolska only 50-90 percent of the multi-annual norm.

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– The easiest and fastest thing we could do to improve the situation is to retain water and simply save it – says the expert. – It may seem trivial, but in times when water is starting to run out, we should manage it sparingly, and in periods when there is more of it – store it. However, large retention reservoirs – which is what we most often associate with water storage – are not the best solution at all, because if we have high temperatures, this water simply heats up and evaporates. If we add to this the fact that we have polluted rivers, the water in these reservoirs loses its utility value, its quality simply deteriorates.

Retention reservoirs collect water during periods of heavy rainfall and constitute a water reservoir for droughts. According to PGW Wody Polskie, there are about 100 large, artificial water reservoirs in Poland, and the amount of water stored in them is about 4 billion m3, which is about 6.5 percent of the volume of the average annual river runoff. For comparison, in Spain, the retention level reaches as much as 45 percent with 1.9 thousand reservoirs. The Ministry of Infrastructure indicates that large retention reservoirs in Poland have a total capacity three times lower than that considered in Europe to be sufficient for safe water supply and ensuring a sufficient level of flood protection (multi-annual program entitled "Water Resources Management in Poland"). In order to meet the needs of the economy and effectively counteract the effects of both drought and flood, the retention level in Poland is to be increased to about 15 percent (i.e. 8.4 billion m3 of stored water).

– The simplest solution would be to simply let this water stay in the landscape – when there is too much of it, let it spread over wetlands, feed small, natural water reservoirs, soak into the soil, because the best water storage is groundwater. Especially since this water, when it penetrates groundwater, simply purifies itself. This is the best storage and the best source of drinking water – emphasizes Dr. Jarosław Suchożebrski.

Source: Newseria

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