Diverted Outflow Water from Hungary’s Thermal Baths is Helping Hungary’s Grasslands Stave Off Desertification and Groundwater Depletion Caused by Droughts and Poor Surface Water Management

     This interesting water conservation story comes from Hungary and combines two of the country’s most famous features: its grasslands on the Hungarian plains and its thermal baths, fed by underground hydrothermal systems. I found the story on Good News Network, a news site I like that specializes in optimistic stories. Now, outflow from Budapest’s thermal spas is being diverted to certain fields in the Hungarian grasslands for irrigation, to mitigate drought, and to recharge groundwater. 

     The grassland region in Southern Hungary is known as the Homokhátság. As in much of Europe, surface water had already been rerouted via canals. This water mismanagement of the past is contributing to a drying up of parts of the region, which is becoming an arid landscape in the process, similar to that known as desertification. One might call it anthropogenically influenced aridification. Extended droughts have already damaged crop yields in the area, which is known for agriculture. Lack of water in the landscape is thought to be creating a feedback where the air blowing over the plain does not pick up enough moisture to produce rain.

     According to Euro News:

“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 rain, and result in high winds that dried out the topsoil even further.”

     A volunteer group known as Water Guardians, made up partially of local farmers, is leading the thermal water diversion project. After a dry summer in 2025, the group blocked several channel switches along a canal, bringing thousands of gallons of water to the target field. After months of emptying the spa’s outflow, the six-acre field was totally flooded. Researchers noted that the effect will extend to over four square kilometers around the field area. Higher water table levels were also recorded.

“Tamás Tóth, a meteorologist in Hungary, says 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.”

     Prime Minister Orban created a "drought task force" earlier this year to help address the problem. In addition to improvements in the water table, an increase in flora and fauna was observed in the area after the water was in place.

     The group noted:

“This initiative can serve as an example for everyone, we need more and more efforts like this,” Nagyapáti says. “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.”

     The picture below seems to show the extensive hydric soils in the area, which indicate the likely presence of a wetland for most of the recent past.

 

References:

 

Hungary’s Famous Thermal Baths Are Saving the Country’s Famous Grasslands from Desertification. Andy Corbley. Good News Network. January 2, 2026. Hungary's Famous Thermal Baths Are Saving the Country's Famous Grasslands from Desertification

‘It’s getting worse year after year’: Could water from Hungary’s thermal spas save arid farmland? Euro News. Justin Spike. December 29, 2025. ‘It’s getting worse year after year’: Could water from Hungary’s thermal spas save arid farmland? | Euronews