The Environment Ministry wants to restore life in the Hron River after the mass death of fish. Regular monitoring of the functionality of fish raceways and barriers should improve the situation on the river. The ministry also plans to introduce legislation that will help in the supervision work of environmental inspectors. According to the Environment Minister Ján Budaj, Slovakia is currently paying the price for biogas and small hydropower plants built on the Slovak rivers in the past decades. "We have witnessed shortcomings in the process, insufficient environmental impact assessment and often ignored the objections of the parties concerned," emphasized Budaj.
In late July, more than 5.3 tons of dead fish were removed from the Hron River following a leak from a biogas station in the village of Budča near Zvolen. The pollution of the watercourse was caused by the leakage of digestate from the biogas plant after the fall of a tree due to a storm caused the rupture of the bag used for its storage. The mass death of fish was observed by fishermen in cloudy, smelly and opaque water near the village of Trnavá Hora. According to conservationists, several species of European importance were also found among the dead fish species, such as the Danube headfish, the Carpathian horse mackerel, the predatory boletus and the white-finned hornet.
At the same time, the Environment Ministry is preparing a program for the revitalization of watercourses in Slovakia. As part of this program, it will determine the conditions and procedures of restoration of free-flowing sections of watercourses and the restoration of previously regulated sections. "Instead of the further devastation of Slovak rivers, we want to contribute to the protection against floods and create conditions for the restoration of natural floodplains," the minister concluded.
