A F T E R T H E F L O O D
In homes throughout the area, residents raised personal valuables to higher ground, or failing that, hopelessly watched their homes collapse. Industrial waste and sewage entered the deluge creating a wretched toxic soup. And government officials and engineers shook their heads in confusion about what had happened, and what was to be done - at times refusing to admit that a tragedy had occurred in order to save national face.
As the waters receded, and international reporting trickled, people were left to pick up the pieces and dry them in the sun. Environmental NGOs, many on-site during flood relief activities, raised their voices against allegedly unconcerned governmental authorities and engineers, many of whom refused to admit that they had failed.
And now, after the flood, with rebuilding full speed ahead, NGOs and municipalities are calling for the flood to be used as a lesson - that the rebuilding be done in a way which respects natureÕs ways, to avoid another tragedy.
In the pages ahead, environmentalists, local officials, reporters and scientists from the four Visegrad countries of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia try to piece together exactly what happened in an attempt to answer the question, what should happen now... after the flood.
