Állítsd be a Telexet megbízható forrásnak!“The government made a mistake when it failed to build large reservoirs suitable for retaining water ten years ago", János Lázár stated last year, while serving as minister of construction and transportation in the Orbán government. As evidenced by a recently surfaced video, the former minister spoke about this during a December hearing before the Parliament’s Committees for Business Development and Sustainable Growth.His statement is in direct opposition to the narrative promoted by Fidesz (now an opposition party) in recent weeks, which claims that the Tisza government, which took office in May, is solely responsible for the country being unprepared for the historic drought and heatwave.At last December’s hearing, Lázár replied with blunt honesty to a point raised by László Lóránt Keresztes, then an independent member of Parliament and chairman of the committee, who criticized the government’s lack of a water management strategy. “You are absolutely right in saying that it is foolish to allow much more freshwater to leave the country than comes into it; this is simply untenable. […] ​​I’ll share a government secret with you: there’s a great deal of talk about this in government circles. […] There are currently 200 millimeters of water missing from the fields in the Great Plain.”“We’re heading toward total destruction. There are geographical and natural phenomena which give us cause for grave concern. Your figures are completely accurate; the water shortage is a brutal reality, and I can tell you that it hasn’t really been decided what we want to do,” Lázár acknowledged, admitting the mistake of the government at the time.When asked about János Lázár admission that the Orbán government had failed to adequately prepare the country for a severe water shortage, Fidesz’s parliamentary group leader, János Bóka said on Monday that the Tisza government alone is responsible for the current situation. “The previous government's track record over the past few years is not perfect. We are in the midst of an unprecedented energy crisis, but it is thanks to the Orbán governments' energy developments over the past 16 years and the sacrifices made by consumers that the electricity grid currently remains in operation.” He added that although they could have prioritized things differently, the current government is still solely responsible for the way the current situation is being handled.On Monday, following his meeting with the group leaders of all the parliamentary parties, the Prime Minister criticised the previous government at length for having put off relocating the pumps that supply cooling water to the Paks Nuclear Power Plant and adjusting them to lower water levels. He stressed that the Orbán governments had sixteen years to prepare the country for a situation like this, but failed to do so. “So we inherited this,” he said.Magyar announced that during the meeting with the group leaders, they had agreed to develop a water strategy. “We will allow the experts to do their job”, he said. In his view, the role of politics in this matter is simply to select the most feasible proposal from among those drafted by the experts, based on the resources available. The Prime Minister also committed to working with experts to find a short-term solution for adequately preparing the Paks NPP for a similar situation occurring again in a year or two, but also stressed that the government will work to ensure that in the long term, the country’s energy supply is much more diversified.Hungary is currently suffering from a historic drought; the water level of the Danube was minus 137 centimeters in Paks on Monday, with three units of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant already shut down. At the time of writing, the last turbine is still in operation, but its shutdown is expected within a day or two at the latest, since the low water level means that the plant’s cooling system can no longer function safely.For more quick, accurate and impartial news from and about Hungary, subscribe to the Telex English newsletter!Állítsd be a Telexet megbízható forrásnak!Latest