|Video Courtesy of NTDTV |
Poland is working to contain floodwaters from the most serious flooding in the country in decades. Yesterday thousands of military personnel and firefighters were working to rebuild dikes and dams that are not holding up after a second wave of floods hit the south, according to the Associated Press. The report also said that 3,000 people have been evacuated from towns along the river and that the weather forecast is calling for more rain.
Heavy spring rains caused the Vistula River to burst its banks, partially inundating towns and agricultural fields in the southeast, according to Weather Online. The Guardian reported in May that beavers have contributed to the severity of the flooding. The animals tunnel and burrow into levees on the Vistula, causing great damage. Beavers are being hunted more actively since the flooding began.
Also to blame is years of poor flood planning.
Piotr Kuzniar from the Polish Department of Environmental Engineering Technology said that human infrastructure has reduced floodplains around the Vistula to a “quarter the natural width of the areas flooded by the river.”
He added that, “in some areas which are naturally flooded by the river, there are now whole villages,” according to a report in Polish television site TVP Info.
Friends Read Free