<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Oszkár Nagyapáti climbed to the bottom of a sandy pit on his land on the Great Hungarian Plain and dug into the soil with his hand, searching for a sign of groundwater that in recent years has been in accelerating retreat.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It's much worse, and it's getting worse year after year," he said as cloudy liquid slowly seeped into the hole. "Where did so much </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/water" rel="" target="" title="water"><span>water</span></a><span> go? It's unbelievable".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Nagyapáti has watched with distress as the region in southern </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/hungary" rel="" target="" title="Hungary"><span>Hungary</span></a><span>, once an important site for </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/agriculture" rel="" target="" title="agriculture"><span>agriculture</span></a><span>, has become increasingly arid.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/queensland-floods-weather-australia/0aa6a6c7-7bb8-4238-81fa-3a9c6ced3e19" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>New warnings for life-threatening flash floods as Queensland smashed by rain</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Where a variety of crops and grasses once filled the fields, today there are wide cracks in the soil and growing dunes more reminiscent of the Sahara Desert than Central </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/europe" rel="" target="" title="Europe"><span>Europe</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Semiarid region</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The region, known as the Homokhátság, has been described by some studies as semiarid — a distinction more common in parts of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/africa" rel="" target="" title="Africa"><span>Africa</span></a><span>, the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/usa" rel="" target="" title="American"><span>American</span></a><span> Southwest or </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national" rel="" target="" title="Australian"><span>Australian</span></a><span> Outback — and is characterised by very little rain, dried-out wells and a water table plunging ever deeper underground.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/hungarys-water-guardian-farmers-fight-back-against-desertification/fd658689-f2fe-4131-9138-16d20a4b28c5" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In a 2017 paper in the European Countryside, a </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/science" rel="" target="" title="scientific"><span>scientific</span></a><span> journal, researchers cited "the combined effect of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/climate-change" rel="" target="" title="climatic changes"><span>climatic changes</span></a><span>, improper land use and inappropriate environmental management" as causes for the Homokhátság's aridification, a phenomenon the paper called unique in this part of the continent.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Fields that in previous centuries would be regularly flooded by the Danube and Tisza Rivers have, through a combination of climate change-related droughts and poor water retention practices, become nearly unsuitable for crops and </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/wildlife" rel="" target="" title="wildlife"><span>wildlife</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/fairfield-sydney-tactical-police-operation/04db1bee-4a8c-4e97-add8-9c63e7e2003b" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Sydney man charged over alleged conspiracy to commit shooting</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>'Water guardians'</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Now, a group of farmers and other volunteers, led by Nagyapáti, are trying to save the region and their lands from total desiccation using a resource for which Hungary is famous: thermal water.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I was thinking about what could be done, how could we bring the water back or somehow create water in the landscape," Nagyapáti told The Associated Press.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"There was a point when I felt that enough is enough. We really have to put an end to this. And that's where we started our project to flood some areas to keep the water in the plain."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Along with the group of volunteer "water guardians," Nagyapáti began negotiating with authorities and a local thermal spa last year, hoping to redirect the spa's overflow water — which would usually pour unused into a canal — onto their lands.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The thermal water is drawn from very deep underground.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/western-sydney-police-car-chase-woodville-golf-course/12bf12ff-0920-4744-9af5-3da82a8d7e3f" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Teen arrested after wild police chase of Porsche with 'cloned' plates</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Mimicking natural flooding</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>According to the water guardians' plan, the water, cooled and purified, would be used to flood a two-and-a-half-hectare low-lying field — a way of mimicking the natural cycle of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/floods" rel="" target="" title="flooding"><span>flooding</span></a><span> that channelising the rivers had ended.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"When the flooding is complete, and the water recedes, there will be two-and-a-half-hectares of water surface in this area," Nagyapáti said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This will be quite a shocking sight in our dry region."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A 2024 study by Hungary's Eötvös Loránd University showed that unusually dry layers of surface-level air in the region had prevented any arriving storm fronts from producing precipitation. Instead, the fronts would pass through without </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/rain" rel="" target="" title="rain"><span>rain</span></a><span>, resulting in high winds that dried out the topsoil even further.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/bondi-beach-terror-attack-prime-minister-anthony-albanese-afp-commissioner-krissy-barrett-update-investigation/786a1481-b54f-43de-9220-701acf59acf8" rel="" target="" title="CCTV of alleged Bondi gunmen in Philippines under AFP review"><strong><span>CCTV of alleged Bondi gunmen in Philippines under AFP review</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Creation of a microclimate</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The water guardians hoped that by artificially flooding certain areas, they would not only raise the groundwater level but also create a microclimate through surface evaporation that could increase humidity, reduce temperatures and dust and have a positive impact on nearby vegetation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Tamás Tóth, a meteorologist in Hungary, said that because of the potential impact such wetlands can have on the surrounding climate, water retention "is simply the key issue in the coming years and for generations to come, because climate change does not seem to stop".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The atmosphere continues to warm up, and with it the distribution of precipitation, both seasonal and annual, has become very hectic, and is expected to become even more hectic in the future," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/sydney-new-years-eve-premier-chris-minns-promises-different-kind-of-policing/d90275eb-b0da-452a-b462-b7ace71771b3" rel="" target="" title="'Different kind of policing' for Sydney on NYE, Premier Chris Minns says"><strong><span>'Different kind of policing' for Sydney on NYE, Premier Chris Minns says</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>'Immense happiness'</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Following another hot, dry </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/summer" rel="" target="" title="summer"><span>summer</span></a><span> this year, the water guardians blocked a series of sluices along a canal, and the repurposed water from the spa began slowly gathering in the low-lying field.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After a couple of months, the field had nearly been filled.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Standing beside the area in early December, Nagyapáti said that the shallow marsh that had formed "may seem very small to look at it, but it brings us immense happiness here in the desert".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said the added water will have a "huge impact" within a roughly four-kilometre radius, "not only on the vegetation, but also on the water balance of the soil. We hope that the groundwater level will also rise".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/dog-attack-three-people-injured-raymond-terrace-nsw/5f1c07d9-b00c-4d3c-9933-f9cf0b2a708c" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Three including teen boy injured in NSW dog attack</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Drought task force</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Persistent droughts in the Great Hungarian Plain have threatened desertification, a process where vegetation recedes because of high heat and low rainfall.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/weather-news" rel="" target="" title="Weather"><span>Weather</span></a><span>-damaged crops have dealt significant blows to the country's overall gross domestic product, prompting Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to announce this year the creation of a "drought task force" to deal with the problem.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After the water guardians' first attempt to mitigate the growing problem in their area, they said they experienced noticeable improvements in the groundwater level, as well as an increase in flora and fauna near the flood site.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The group, which has grown to more than 30 volunteers, would like to expand the project to include another flooded field, and hopes their efforts could inspire similar action by others to conserve the most precious resource.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This initiative can serve as an example for everyone. We need more and more efforts like this," Nagyapáti said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We retained water from the spa, but retaining any kind of water, whether in a village or a town, is a tremendous opportunity for water replenishment."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f"><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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