Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba. (source: SME - Jozef Jakubčo)
To the surprise and shock of many, the Environment Ministry intends to build a hydropower plant in the villages of Látky and Málinec in central Slovakia. Minister Tomáš Taraba (SNS nominee) included the plan in the comment procedure without prior consultations not only with the municipalities, but ordinary people and experts as well.
Taraba wants it to be declared a strategic investment, meaning that it would accelerate the construction of the Málinec hydroelectric power plant worth almost €2.4 billion.
Until last Wednesday, February 5, neither Látky Mayor Mário Kubiš nor the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region knew about the plan, which may involve flooding an area of eight square kilometres on which several farms and houses stand. People learned about it on the basis of scattered information on the Internet, no one from the ministry had talked to them.
Among the people whose lives may be affected are former Slovak ice-hockey national team goalkeeper Ján Lašák. In the area stands a wooden house he inherited from his grandparents, one that he has been repairing himself over the last four years. One day he wanted to give it to his children.
The proposed construction of the hydropower plant. (source: FB/Zachráňme Látky - Čechánky)
Either a few cottages or reservoir worth billions
On last Friday morning, Taraba met with mayors from the villages the plant will affect the most. After the meeting, he held a press conference in order to alleviate concerns. Taraba said that the mayors left satisfied and that open communication will be held between the mayors and the ministry.
According to him, the plant could bring billions of euros not only to the state coffers, but also to the area. Taraba also claimed that the plant can become profitable in five to seven years and will have "absolutely minimal impact on the environment". In addition, it will not be necessary to flood any more villages and evict people, but should that happen, it would concern five to six families and a cooperative at most, according to Taraba. He contrasted them with the state's project worth several billions.
"Let the mayors have a say in what's important," he said.
The minister also said that "no one is going to build anything there right now" as the project is now in the feasibility study phase. However, the documentation states that the implementation should take place between 2025 to 2035. According to Taraba, "industry is pushing for the construction".
Taraba gave the affected villages five working days to comment so as "to prevent land speculators from exploiting the period".
However, later on Friday the mayors said that they did not leave satisfied.
"We, as mayors of the affected municipalities, initiated a working meeting with Minister Taraba. What was said about us leaving satisfied were lies. We are not satisfied, not to mention associated with the intention. This is a project that will affect the entire part of the village. The five or six families living there would have to be evicted," Látky Mayor Mário Kubiš told the My Novohrad website. He adds that together with the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region, the affected villages want to submit a joint comment.
Meanwhile, two online petitions, one launched by non-parliamentary party Demokrati and the other by lawyer and Lučenec town councillor Renáta Endrődyová, have both garnered thousands of signatures, the former with more than 20,000 and the latter with more than 18,000 at the time of writing.
Despondent people
Taking to social media, former ice-hockey goalkeeper Lašák did not hide his frustration.
"Minister Taraba decided that we urgently need to build a dam to make electricity worth €2.4 billion. It's so urgent that we only learned about it on the Internet, that we have five days to comment. We are talking about beautiful nature, a beautiful land, where my grandfather worked hard, where my mother worked like a mule since she was a child, and where I grew up learning about the real values in life," he wrote last week. He adds that he has always wanted to return to the cottage he inherited from his grandparents. He has been repairing it for four years and eventually wanted to give it to his own children.
"Now bam, I just found out that they are going to take it away from me. Every time I played for Slovakia, I represented everyone. I'm a proud Slovak, proud of our beautiful country and people. But it's possible that I will not be any more. That's not how things are done. And let's not pretend that the ministry is doing a good thing," he wrote.
Speaking to the Sme daily on Friday, Katarína Mošková and her partner René Zobola, who have a living in the area, expressed their own frustration, saying that they are full of emotions, ranging from despondency to making jokes about the despondency.
"We haven't slept for the last two days," Mošková said, adding that she and Zobola felt hurt by the "dubious" way the ministry has been handling the project.
"We don't have enough information. We would find ourselves on the shore, as we are adjacent to the land to be flooded," says Zobola. "We don't know" was a regular answer to the most basic questions asked by the Sme daily reporter.
The blue shows where a reservoir is to be built. Below lies the existing reservoir that should connect to the upper one. (source: SME/google earth)
What will be built
The hydropower plant that the ministry wants to construct is based on the pump-storage method, meaning that the plant will produce electricity by moving water between two reservoirs located at different elevation, one higher and one lower. The water is released through turbines to produce electricity. The goal is to do this at times of peak demand. Surplus electricity is then used to pump the water back up to the upper reservoir.
In the case of the proposed plant in Látky, the upper reservoir is to be built, while the lower has already been built.
In a Saturday social media post, Taraba called the plant "the biggest ecological and economic opportunity for central Slovakia", which would make the historic Podpoľanie region "one of the richest" in Slovakia. He added that an explanatory campaign will be launched in relation to the plant.
"If the local government and the region oppose the billions [of euros] coming to the region, which will bring large amounts of money to municipal budgets every year; if the local government says that it does not want people to have jobs, but rather opt for poverty, that is, of course, their right," Taraba wrote.
The Union of Towns and Cities of Slovakia expressed support to the mayors of villages in the area and criticises Taraba for avoiding expert opinions and the legitimate concerns of people.
