“Today is not a good time to settle scores. I watch all kinds of gossip, I look at it critically,” said Bogdan Zdrojewski, MEP from the Civic Coalition and former mayor of Wrocław, in an afternoon conversation on RMF FM and online radio RMF24. “What I fear in the case of Wrocław is not a surge, but unforeseen events, that the embankments will not withstand, that some hydrotechnical device will be destroyed,” said Piotr Salak’s guest.
Western and southern Poland are battling floods. Bogdan Zdrojewski was the mayor of Wrocław during the millennium flood in 1997.
If the Racibórz reservoir had existed in 1997, the scale of the problems would have been much smaller. – said Zdrojewski.
Remember that it is not the amount of water itself that is decisive, but rather the timing of the collection of the surplus. For Wrocław in 1997, the combination of the peaks of the Oder and Neisse rivers was disastrous. – explained the former president of this city.
He admitted that he is not calm about Wrocław now. We have to choose the worst-case scenario, then we know we can do it – said the former president. In a flood situation and threat to the city, monitoring, observation and rapid response are important – Zdrojewski added.
What I fear most in the case of Wrocław is not a wave peak, but unforeseen events, that the embankments will not withstand, that some hydrotechnical device will be destroyed. – said Bogdan Zdrojewski.
Salak also asked Zdrojewski about his hometown of Kłodzko, which was destroyed by the flood. And how to prevent flooding in these regions. This flood was difficult to prevent, but its scale could have been limited by better preparation and by not taking certain decisions. – replied Zdrojewski. Here He pointed to deforestation of the forest, concrete, high levels of urbanization and excessive regulation of rivers and streams.
Building dams in mountainous areas is also a costly task. These dams destroy the landscape, and some reservoirs require resettlement. This is a complex issue. If we do not approach this issue as a multi-component issue, we will not be able to achieve the effect of limiting the scale of the damage. – said Zdrojewski.
When asked by Piotr Salak about the information chaos during the current flood, he replied: IN In 1997 I had a lack of information, now we have a surplus of information. (…). Today is not a good time to settle scores, I am observing all kinds of rejections, I look critically (…). We need to cooperate, not diverge politically, this is not the time, said Zdrojewski.
The article is being updated
