Water management in Hungary

Hungary as a new EU member state experienced a wave of investments in water industry during the past few years. Novel technologies, both in the field of wastewater and drinking water treatment were emerged and disseminated. Solving the problems of ammonium and arsenic will provide safe and healthy drinking water for approximately 2 million people. The coverage of sewerage and communal wastewater treatment has increased from 50% to 75% in a brief period. Due to the geographical conditions Hungary is rich both in ground and surface waters with contradictionary consequences.

High floods and inland water in 2010 caused serious economic and agricultural damages, whilst in previous years and particularly in spring 2011 unusually low surface water levels were experienced. Global hydro-climatic changes were also detected, the slow, but constant increase in surface water temperature besides the increased frequency of extreme hydrological events.

In some regions long term strategic problems are also faced by the water industry, such as the decrease of drinking water resources, their protection, limited surface water availability that leads to increasing water prices.

The mitigation of these challenges needs innovative and novel technological solutions development of which involves many of the young water professionals. We hope that this conference will answer some of the pressing questions. The priority of the long-term sustainability could only be maintained if really cost-effective technologies are emerging.

Sponsors

Thanks to our sponsors for supporting this year's IWA Young Water Professionals Conference!

Local organisers

The conference is organised by Edit Nagy and Dóra Schalbert on behalf of the Hungarian Water Utility Association and Dr. Anita Szabó, Dr. Ernő Fleit, Éva Fetter and Dániel Sándor on behalf of the Budapest University of Technology, Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering.