Michal Kravčík
Water Management Engineer – Slovakia
Michal Kravčík is an internationally recognized Slovak water scientist, water management engineer, ASHOKA fellow, and co-author of A New Water Paradigm: Water for the Recovery of the Climate, which emphasizes hydrologic cycles in addressing climate change. He is also a founding member and chairman of Slovakia’s NGO People and Water. In 1999, Kravčík was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his contributions to the water management of the Torysa river after galvanizing support to halt a dam planned during the Communist era by proposing effective democratic alternatives, including smaller dams, decentralized water management, and restored farmlands.
In 1992 the democratic Slovakian government restored an old idea from the communist era to build a dam in Tichý Potok on the Torysa river. The project was supposed to provide drinking water for cities in east Slovakia and support water if a water shortage were to occur. The investment would affect the natural rural environment and would require the abandonment of four 700-year-old villages. Michal Kravčík did not agree with the idea, claiming that existing drinking water reservoirs had not been used to their full extent, water consumption rate had been decreasing and huge quantities of water were being wasted at the stage of distribution.
Kravčík took his ideas to the national level in 1998, helping to organize a non-partisan national voter education campaign that resulted in unprecedented citizen participation in national elections. People and Water organized the Village and Democracy project in 164 villages in the Levoca mountain region to support democratic processes and build a sustainable open society. Kravčík and People and Water have continued to work toward integrated river basin management in the region via the sustainable development programs “Villages for the Third Millennium” and “Water for the Third Millennium”. Another campaign, The “Blue Alternative” provided means to obtain the same amount of drinking water for approximately 20 percent of the cost of the proposed dam, while minimizing the destructive impacts on the environment. One of its key components was that resources were to be managed by a local association of villages, requiring de-centralization of power, a challenge to the old style of government. They ran activities such as an organic farm, agro-tourism, local handicrafts marketing, a fish farm and a reed bed water treatment plant.
In spite of several advantages, the Slovakian Ministry of Environment rejected his idea. Michal Kravčík, together with the People and Water NGO, organized summer work camps in 1995 and 1996 in order to build a few small water reservoirs. Once the construction was finished, the media was invited to the site. The project became even more popular, when People and Water were fined for running construction without permission. Still, as a result of his actions, the elections were attended by 84% of the population and the former prime minister who supported the idea of building the dam in Tichy Potok was defeated.
It wasn’t until 2010 that the Government of the Slovak Republic adopted the Landscape Revitalization and Integrated River Basin Management Program. It finally recognized that due to the farming methods (not only) in our territory the landscape’s ability to hold water was substantially weakened. The Landscape Revitalization Program’s main tool consisted in improvement of rainwater retention. It set a goal to restore landscape water retention capacity of at least 250 million m3 in damaged parts of the landscape.
In a short period of 18 months 488 villages and towns involved in the Program carried out about 100 thousand different water retention elements in degraded landscape. The landscape water retention capacity of total 10 million m3 was built or restored, which amounted to 4% of total plan during the expected 10-year Program implementation period. The implementation projects provided total of 7,700 seasonal jobs for local people.
Although only a small portion of the planned scope of the Program has been implemented so far, Slovakia has demonstrated an example of a fundamental solution in combating climate change, ecosystem degradation, flooding and drought risks.
“When people declare that something must not be done, others should not interfere with what they are trying to do.“
Website: 1) https://www.theflowpartnership.org/people-and-water
2) http://www.waterparadigm.org/
3) https://www.ludiaavoda.sk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kravcik.michal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vodnikkravcik/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michal-krav%C4%8D%C3%ADk-4115294b/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichalKravcik
Books: A New Water Paradigm: Water for the Recovery of the Climate
Video 1: New Water Reality
Video 2: New Water Paradigm
Video 3:Code Red Water
