The good practice and recommendations of professional international institutions are just that we should not start waiting and paying attention to them until they appear in our fields and wells. We should prepare for it in advance and do everything we can to ensure that its effects on people, the economy and nature are as small as possible. According to the World Meteorological Organization and the Global Water Partnership, this shift from drought crisis management (where we act to drought) to drought risk management (where we prevent or prepare for drought in advance) is on three pillars.

The team is the first continuous monitoring of the state of drought, which monitors indicators such as soil temperature and humidity or the state of groundwater, but also many others, which allow you to determine the tips of such a state, as well as their current importance. Functional early warning systems should have these indicators analyzed and forecasts for all key actors. We learn from the SAO report that “the Slovak Republic did not have a complete and uniform system of drought indicators” and neither “Defined individual severity events.”

The second pillar is a thorough understanding and assessment of vulnerabilities and the effects of drought. The assessment of the impact of such a situation should take into account the social, economic and environmental factors that make it possible to identify an area with adverse consequences. The SAO in this area that “Areas with a potential drought have not been identified, which is a prerequisite for setting up effective measures to manage it.”

The third pillar is effective planning and drought preparedness. On the one hand, this includes structural measures, such as water retention measures in the country, soil protection systems, or the cultivation of crops that are resistant to drought and high temperatures. On the other hand, non-structural measures are also needed, including well-defined policies, a legislative framework and public awareness.

Although an overview of what measures should have been taken so well in the fight and we have an action plan in place, the SAO states that “For none of the measures (action plan) were responsibilities, measurable results of the measures implemented nor specific indicators in terms of expected drought mitigation effects.”

Drought is a complex and inter-ministerial product that is needed to address the environment, agriculture, economy and transport in cooperation with local governments and academia. For this reason, and in order to eliminate the shortcomings identified above, the SAO recommends that the drought management policy be coordinated by a body with strong mandates from the Government of the Slovak Republic. “If stakeholders’ own sectoral intentions are prioritized, measures will only be taken by inefficient spending of funds to promote local interests.” supplied by the SAO.