Czech Republic Morava Riverkeeper
By, Helena Králová, Morava Riverkeeper

My name is Helena Králová, and I am your Morava Riverkeeper. The Morava is about 330 kilometers long, running south through the eastern part of the Czech Republic – the country where Martina Navratilova, some of the world’s best hockey players, and real Budweiser beer come from.
Our work to protect the Morava started more than ten years ago when thirty individuals and organizations – nature conservation groups, fishermen associations, and others – came together to found The Union for the Morava River. The Union for the Morava River was volunteer run, and our projects were supported by various foundations. It was the first nonprofit citizens’ organization focused on protection of a river and its watershed in our country. As secretary, I participated in all of our projects. Our main priority was and still is floodplain protection, which includes river and wetland restoration.

In 1997, the Czech Republic was hit with a devastating flood – larger than the expected "100-year flood" during an extreme period of rainfall that reached 234 millimeters of rainfall per day (that is 9.2 inches in one day). Almost the entire floodplain was underwater. 25 people perished, 70,000 inhabitants from 70 villages were forced to evacuate, flooding damaged 30 towns and more than 200 villages.

Since that time, water management specialists have focused on flood-control. Unfortunately, they have focused primarily on engineered solutions only, mainly new dams. What they don’t understand is that solutions that do not consider the impact on the environment will not only fail to solve the flooding problem, but lead to even more serious environmental damage in the future.

I've always had a love of water and rivers, and I studied water management at university. Later, as an environmental educator at the conservation group Veronica, I gave courses on water for students of all ages. I started school-based water-quality monitoring in Brno. It was fun to work with the school kids and their teachers, using portable laboratories, sampling the brooks, rivers, and wells of the city and its surrounding. To make the mapping and sampling more efficient and interesting, we designed questionnaires – my daughter Helenka did the illustrations for them. Later, the project was expanded internationally to schools in eastern Slovakia and Hungary. When working with conservation organizations in other European countries, I learned about new ways to protect the rivers, such as Adopt a River and River Contract – projects that use voluntary agreements between concerned citizens, companies, public officials, conservation groups and others to improve conditions on the river.

About five years ago, I had the opportunity to teach at the University of Technology in Brno, teaching river and landscape restoration and hydrology. Still interested in working to protect my river, I learned from friends in Portland, Oregon about Waterkeeper Alliance and was impressed by their activities and achievements. I then attended the Waterkeeper Annual Conference in Long Island, New York in June 1999. After coming home, I wrote a few articles and presented Waterkeeper ideas to the Union for the Morava River.

In June 2000, in collaboration with my friends at the Union for the Morava River and with the support of my husband Bill, we launched the Morava Riverkeeper program. I work with students, communicate with water authorities, participate on flood control projects, monitor water quality, and educate the public on water and river issues. As Riverkeeper, I push for flood control measures that incorporate river and landscape restoration.

There are signs that we are making progress. I worked with my colleagues from Union for the Morava River to develop alternative flood control measures for the Morava and Becva Rivers. We recently brought our argument for incorporating environmental considerations to river management authorities and government officials and, amazingly, it was accepted! We also presented an ecological alternative of flood control for the city of Olomouc. Some of our ideas were accepted by water management authorities there as well.

The lack of communication between the civil engineers working in river management and natural scientists, however, remains a huge problem. Successful river restoration requires the collaboration of specialists in both groups. We need to overcome the arrogance of some water management authorities who don’t see the need to reach beyond their own expertise to make sure that any flood control measures we implement will truly protect the river and its vital habitats.

Here’s an example: A new dam was being planned for flood
control for the town of Krnov. The dam was to be built on the location of a small but prospering village called Nove Herminovy, where 253 people lived. This ancient village would be sacrificed to save the
larger town downstream from the next big flood. We were asked by the village mayor to help investigate alternative projects for controlling flooding on the Opava River, a tributary to the Morava, without a dam. Our biggest obstacle was the unwillingness and reluctance of other officials to cooperate.

In order to complete our evaluation we needed elevation data of the river, which the authorities had collected, but refused to provide us. After three months of writing, phoning, explaining, and waiting, we gave up. I took leave from work, enlisted my son John and Vaclav (an experienced water management specialist and member of the Union for the Morava River) to help. We spent almost a week in the town of Krnov collecting the information ourselves. We did a basic leveling survey, walked along the river, waded in the water, measured all the bridges and river channels in the town, and got the necessary data to design our alternative plan.

Our calculations proved that Nove Herminovy would not have to be sacrificed. With the riverbed enlarged at strategic points, the riverbanks in town restored to a natural condition, and some of the bridges raised to accommodate more flow, the river would harmlessly transport higher floodwaters right through town. This fall we presented our solution at a round table discussion with city officials and the media. Now we’ll have to convince officials to go forward with our plan.

Working on the projects of the Union for the Morava River and being a lecturer of water management, I see the river from many points of view. Water management practices over the last fifty years have done a lot of harm to the
rivers – not only in our country. We engineers have to admit to our part in this. Some consider it a personal attack, but we have to learn from our mistakes and try to avoid them in the future.

There is hope for our rivers in the new legislative document mandated by the European Union called the "Water Framework Directive." The directive stipulates that rivers of the European Union, including Czech rivers, have to be protected and their conditions preserved or improved.

Change is hard. It is difficult to challenge the opinions of engineers and politicians and to push for change. In spite of that, we have to explain, listen, and exchange opinions. Without communication, there is no hope for progress. There’s too much work to do and too many problems to worry about. I know that my life would be easier without the constant struggle, but fighting for our river is a part of who I am. And I am afraid I am too old to change.