Drinking Water Network to be Renewed as Old Lead Pipes Often Still Used in Budapest
- 13 Apr 2023 7:08 AM
- Hungary Matters
The drinking water network of Budapest will be upgraded using 20 billion forints (EUR 53m) in financing from the European Union, the deputy mayor in charge of city operations said.
Kata Tüttő told a press conference at a Budapest Waterworks site in Budafok that the project will be the largest investment of recent decades in the city where old lead pipes were often still in use.
Replacing such pipes is a “burning need”, and the project will enable the replacement of around 3,000 connections, she added.
The programme will also involve the revamp of sixty wells on the Szentendre island and Csepel island, while part of the existing network will be refurbished, she said. Meanwhile, opposition LMP called for an immediate modernisation of Hungary’s public waterworks, saying that the network was in such a “terrible” condition that its modernisation cannot wait until 2026, as included in a bill before parliament.
LMP leader and head of the sustainable development committee, László Lóránt Keresztes, told a press conference that the deleterious condition of Hungary’s waterworks was one of the country’s gravest problems.
He criticised the government for not having recognised the severity of the problem earlier, insisting that several thousands of billions of forints would be needed to complete the work.
“The cabinet is still giving priority to securing water supplies for foreign battery plants instead of providing decent quality drinking water to Hungarians,” he added.
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