The Prague Post
Hotel booking
November 20th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Prague Property

Home » Archives » News

Here comes the flood

Residents fight to save North Moravian village from being submerged by a dam

By Ondřej Bouda
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 13th, 2008 issue

JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
Villager Alois Poučenský says no amount of compensation from the government can make up for losing his family home.
JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
Mayor Jílka shares his villagers' concerns but is willing to reach a compromise with the government.
JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
The construction of a dam on the Opava River was first proposed in the 19th century.
Nové Heřminovy, north Moravia
Residents of Nové Heřminovy, a small village in north Moravia near the Polish border, face a grim future. After many years of planning, their village is slated to disappear under the surface of a new anti-flood dam.
Local officials hope to block its construction and Aug. 5 called for a referendum that would force their magistrates to use all legal means to halt the project. But Mayor Radovan Jílka is convinced they are fighting a losing battle and is open to compromising with state planners.
“I don’t want the dam either, but I’ve talked with lawyers and the best we can hope for is postponing the construction some 20 years,” he said. “Then it will be built anyway, because it’s been labeled as ‘in the public interest.’ So the state can force locals to make way for the dam against their will.”
Many residents feel they’re in a no-win situation.
“They want to take our homes and sink them,” said Alois Poučenský, a local villager whose house is in the way of the dam.
The plan to construct a dam on the Opava River was first proposed in the early 19th century. Austrian engineers scouted the area and decided the valley in which Nové Heřminovy lies was ideal for the project. In 1923, an architect designed plans for it, but the Depression and World War II put an end to the plans.
The communist government revitalized the project but never implemented it due to a building ban that prevented the city from undertaking any development. In the early 1990s, it appeared the plans for the dam had finally been scrapped. But, in 1997, a disastrous flood swept through Moravia, and the dam was once again the center of attention.
Jílka has spent 11 years fighting for the preservation of the village and has achieved several small victories.
“At first, the whole village was supposed to go, but now we are talking only about a smaller dam that would cover only two-thirds of our area,” he said. The village is spread over 6 kilometers of the valley, and the area slated to be flooded is sparsely populated. Even so, it affects some 24 homesteads and more than 30 other buildings.
While a possible date for the dam’s construction has not been set, planning negotiations moved forward July 21 when Environment Minister Martin Bursík, visited the village. He promised to deliver a plan for revitalizing the village after the dam.
“We have succeeded in pushing forward the smaller option with many natural anti-flood measures. We saved 69 homes while maintaining a high level of water-retention capability,” he said. “By 2016, villages will be protected completely against small floods, and construction on the dam itself will begin. The dam will protect more than 170,000 people in 55 towns and villages below it,” Bursík said.
Jílka complained that dealing with the government has been extremely difficult. “All the decisions were made behind closed doors and no one asked our opinion. We were simply told we’d have to move,” he said. “We have yet to see any plans for the dam or options that we could choose from.”
Even though he is angry with the state for going back on promises and leaving locals guessing as to their future, Jílka refuses to boycott negotiations with the state. “I am trying to ensure that this village has a future and that my children and grandchildren can grow up and live here, just like me,” he said. “Every cloud has a silver lining. Even if we can’t win, we could be compensated in such a way that would ensure the future of our village.”
Jílka pointed out that, because of building bans, the village lacks a local shop and even a pub. “If we could get permission and state support for public projects, I am sure our citizens would rethink their position and see the benefits it would bring,” he said.
Near-sighted
Jílka, however, points out that if it wasn’t for some bad planning in the first place the people living downriver could have protected themselves. “Our forefathers lived here for hundreds of years and survived all the floods because they knew where to build. However, in Krnov, which will be protected by the dam, they built a new shopping mall after the 1997 floods right next to the river instead of flood barriers. Now they want it protected and don’t care that their bad decision is destroying the lives of many innocent people,” Jílka said.
The vast majority of locals are still against the dam despite guarantees from the Environment Ministry that the village will be revitalized.
“They are trying to buy us off, but no amount of money can repay what we are going to lose,” said resident Poučenský. “This has been our home and life for many generations. And even though many now live elsewhere, the whole family always returns here for Christmas and birthdays. After the floods in 1997, we had to rebuild our house almost from scratch. The state gave us 10,000 Kč, but we had to spend millions. Now they want to take our homes and sink them again.”
Residents have another reason to oppose the project: Another dam was built nearby in the early 1990s, wiping several villages off the map, and many people were relocated to apartment blocks in cities close by. “Villagers were unhappy with being forced to live in a city and some of them decided to come and live here with us and start a new life. For them, this is the second time a dam has threatened their lives,” Jílka explained.
He understands his neighbors’ passion, but refuses to give in to emotions. “People feel betrayed by the state and want to show their power, but if we refuse to talk we’ll never get anywhere and it will all end in tears. Instead, we should compromise and try to get as much out of the deal as we can,” Jílka said.

Ondřej Bouda can be reached at obouda@praguepost.com


Other articles in News (13/08/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.