00:00Due to droughts and water shortages, tons of fish have died at one of Hungary's largest fish farm complexes, Réti
00:08Maia, which covers 800 hectares of water.
00:11According to the fisheries owner, the problem was caused by the Water Authority, withholding water upstream of the lake system
00:17for irrigation purposes.
00:18We cannot keep the water from the water, it is caused by the water. We have about 150 hectares of
00:28water, and the other one is around 400 hectares of water, and there is about 200 hectares.
00:40And there is over half the water, and we are just around half the water.
00:43time this week. According to Levi, maintaining water levels in these protected wildlife areas
00:50should have been a priority. The Water Management Authority said that water withdrawals by all
00:56users had been restricted due to water shortage even more severe than expected, but that restrictions
01:02on fishponds were limited to 20 percent, while water available for irrigation was restricted by
01:0860 percent. It added evaporation from the 800 hectare fishponds represented an irreplaceable loss of water
01:16that dwarfed water consumption for irrigation. Both Levi and authorities stressed it is necessary to
01:23examine how water demands can be met amid changing precipitation patterns and extreme weather conditions.
