Hungary region battles advancing sand dunes, floods

MORAHALOM, Hungary, Sep 18: Grapes still feature on the coat of arms of this small Hungarian town but in the dry fields, weeds are taking over from vines and fruit trees.

The sandy soil around Morahalom in southern Hungary is getting alarmingly dry, and experts and locals warn that a large area of the region risks turning into desert.

Morahalom is in the Homokhatsag district which is home to around 40,000 people and has always had sandy soil -- Homok means sand in Hungarian.

But now the deterioration in soil quality may be threatening the livelihood of 300,000 people or more in a larger surrounding area between the Danube and Tisza rivers due to climate change and a legacy of unsustainable farming and water management.

''When the strong winds come in the spring ... then everything becomes grey ... and it creates a horrible storm of dust, like in the desert,'' says Morahalom's Deputy Mayor Laszlo Csanyi, a potato and pepper farmer.

Hungary's case illustrates the dangers of a global problem of creeping desertification. Experts say deserts are spreading because of degradation of soil in dryland areas, mainly due to a rising human population.

Many fields in the Homokhatsag area look green, but that healthy appearance is deceptive. One reason for the colour is the spread of an aggressive weed whose roots can draw water from much deeper than fruits and vegetables.

''(Desertification) is like high blood pressure or diabetes in humans,'' said Balint Csatari, director of the regional institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) in Kecskemet, southeast of the capital Budapest.

''You cannot see it just by looking at the person, but inside it is working insidiously and destroying the organism.'' On average, ground water levels in the region have dropped by more than 3 metres (9.8 ft) since the 1970s, with a fall of up to 7 metres in some places.

''We have serious reasons to suppose that a change has started which could have catastrophic consequences,'' said Csatari.

FLOODS AND DROUGHTS

Csatari said the main reason was global climate change, which has led to warmer and more extreme weather. The Homokhatsag is drier than the continental climate in most of Hungary, but it also suffers its share of floods -- like those that ruined crops across the country this year.

But floods do not compensate for creeping sand and drought.

''It is no use when it rains a lot in one go, ''said Jozsef Racz, managing director of the Morakert farm cooperative based in Morahalom.

''The top soil does not hold the water ... and by the afternoon the sand becomes so hot again that you cannot walk on it barefoot.'' Another reason for the soil degradation is human activity.

Canals were built in the 1940s to regulate flood water, but they then started channelling water to the nearby Tisza river even in drier years, sometimes draining lakes along their way.

Communist authorities also replaced much of the region's traditional, small-scale fruit and vegetable production with large grain fields which looked better in five-year plans, but which could not thrive on sand and drained more water.

Hungary has the European Union's largest grain surplus but the sandy soil in the Homokhatsag and much of the 8,000-10,000 square kilometre area between the Danube and Tisza is better suited to orchards and vineyards -- as long as the water lasts.

Indigenous trees were also replaced with species which used more water.

Vines, whose roots used to stabilise the sand, also disappeared, some to make way for grain farms, others as farmers switched to fruits and vegetables, which need irrigation.

Deputy Mayor Csanyi is seeking ways to mitigate the effects of the creeping sand and says one solution could be to find a way of storing rainwater during storms or floods.

Lining fields with water efficient tree species could also provide shelter from the strong winds that shift the sand and speed up the evaporation of water.

Irrigation needs to become more efficient, too, aiming water straight at the plants to save every drop.

''When spreading water through any normal dispenser, 30-40 per cent evaporates immediately, the plants cannot use it, it is inefficient,'' Racz said.

''If there are problems with water, these farms will not be able to function, these families will be without work and income.''

Reuters