„Water Gives Life, and We Give Water”

On February 19, Minister of Defence Csaba Hende handed over at Bánkút – a village
which belongs to Medgyesegyháza – the first complex containerized water purification
and dispenser device, whose development and production was managed by the Ministry
of Defence. In his speech, Minister Hende stressed that the day provided a solution to a
very long-standing problem, and that until June 30 the volunteer defence reservists of the
Hungarian Defence Forces would set up and install the same type of devices in another 150
municipalities. With this, the supply of drinking water will be available for a total of around
500,000 people, as a result of the work done by the Ministry of Defence, the Hungarian
Defence Forces and the 100 per cent state-owned private companies limited by shares of the
Ministry.

Minister Hende reminded his audience that all this has been made possible through the
purchase and further development of a Hungarian invention, and that the Hadik-plan –
whose goal is to revive the Hungarian defence industry – was an important antecedent to the
development and production of this device. Water purification is a definite military capability,
so the present results have been facilitated by the antecedents within the Hungarian Defence
Forces and the related conscious industrial development activity. “Water gives life, and we
give water" – Csaba Hende said.

Lajos Móró, the CEO of the MoD ED Co. stressed that for the time being, this was meant as
a temporary solution, but the applied technology can be considered as permanent and may
be used in the future too. This is an efficient and environment-friendly procedure, which is
a wholly Hungarian development. Márton Ruck, the mayor of Medgyesegyháza said thanks
for the installation of the device and for the long-awaited clear water, which had not been
characteristic of the region before.

After the handover the Minister gave the mayor a contract on the free lease of the device to
the community. In what followed, both tasted the water, then made the container available to
the good many local citizens participating in the event. The implementation of the drinking
water program is expected to be finished by the second half of next year – until then, the now
installed device will supply the people of Bánkút with clear drinking water. For the residents
of Medgyesegyháza and Bánkút, this provides a solution for a problem that has been dragging
on for years. Following the February 19 handover, the rest of the containers will also be
installed in the close to 150 municipalities concerned. At a later point, the filtering devices
may be converted to provide a final solution to the problem.

Photo: Mária Krasznai-Nehrebeczky