Stemming the tide of neglect
Alarm bells sounded early last week as rivers across southern Poland threatened to burst their banks following torrential rainfalls the prior weekend. On Monday and Tuesday jittery home owners, farmers, mothers and fathers were glued to the radio and TV waiting for the signal to start preparing for a repeat performance of the flood of the century that slammed the country three years ago.
While by the weekend water levels subsided and life in the flood-threatened regions returned to normal, the recent scare should serve to mobilize local and national politicians to finally get down to implementing long-term flood prevention programs. Hardworking tax and ZUS-paying citizens deserve the best form of protection modern technology and democratically elected governments can provide. Up to now excellent flood prevention schemes have remained exercises and declarations on paper. With plans and money to fund them in hand, local and national politicians are still dragging their feet as if the country has the next 100 years to prepare for the next flood of the century. Two cases in point.
First, the Sejm has yet to approve a plan that will launch the construction of the long-awaited reservoir near Raciborz. With a planned capacity of 200 million cubic meters, the reservoir near the Poland-Czech border would not only spare Wroclaw, Poland's fourth-largest city, from major flood damage, it would also protect a string of other minor cities along the way that were devastated in 1997. Second, instead of improving the situation, over the last three years politicians and civil servants mismanaged or misappropriated at least zl. 28 million ($6.5 million) in public funds earmarked for flood recovery, according to a Supreme Board of Inspection (NIK) report issued earlier this year.
Back in 1997, the true heroes turned out to be average citizens who worked against the odds around the clock to save their towns and treasures. In the flood's aftermath, it was the politicians who collected the awards for other peoples' work well done. But regrettably, politicians have not lived up to the expectations of the electorate since then. In Wroclaw alone, work aimed at repairing embankments and dams near Biskupin and the zoo is at a standstill. If floodwaters came tomorrow, chances are Biskupin residents would not be successful in defending their homes or the zoo.
Time and again, Polish citizens have shown what they can do for their country. In the wake of last week's alarm bells, politicians should now show that they deserve the honors bestowed upon them by their electorate. Poland lies on two great river basins, the Odra and the Vistula, which means floodwaters will come again. It's time to get down to work and catch up for lost time. Politicians, it's time to do something for your country.
