An exhibition in Kampa will commemorate twenty years since the flood in Prague
Great water also hit Prague in 2013, when the city was already better protected. Photo: archive
9/8/2022 – 22/9/2022
In August 2002, floods hit the Czechia. The big water that came to Prague at that time caused almost 30 billion crowns worth of damage to city property. The scope and consequences were the most destructive flood in modern history, there were no losses of life in the territory of the capital in direct connection with the flood. The great water will be commemorated by the photo exhibition “20 years from the flood”, which will be freely accessible from August 9 to September 22 in the Kampa park in the neighborhood of Sovový mýlny. Vít Hofman, the spokesperson of the municipality, informed about it.
The exhibition will recall what happened in the metropolis twenty years ago. Some places will present “then and now” in contrast, other photos capture moments of rescue of evacuated residents and also animals from the Prague Zoo.
The devastating flood in Prague lasted a total of 12 days. It affected 5.8 percent of the city’s area. Almost 50,000 inhabitants had to be evacuated. Public transport was largely paralyzed. Eighteen subway stations were flooded and 25 stations and 17 kilometers of tunnels were closed after the flood, the underground was fully operational only after seven months.
In 2002, only the first stage of flood protection measures on the right bank of the Vltava was built in Prague, with a length of 909.4 meters. Although the mobile fencing prevented the river from spilling into the street, the water reached the Old Town sewer network.
Since 2003, flood protection in Prague has expanded to include additional locations on both banks of the Vltava. The total length of flood protection measures is now 19.3 kilometers. This includes earthen embankments, solid concrete walls and mobile embankments.
The length of this fence is 6.8 kilometers, the height varies from twenty centimeters to 6.3 meters. Under all flood lines, waterproof reinforced concrete, sheet metal or clay cement walls are built to the depth of the impermeable subsoil, in some places up to 12 meters deep.
Other anti-flood measures included the construction of a mobile Čertovka barrier, the Libeň pumping station and the anti-flood closure of the harbors and the Rokytka tributary, measures were taken on the sewage network in all affected areas, metro stations in flood-prone areas have individual anti-flood measures.
Another stage of measures in Troja was completed this year, work is currently underway in Zbraslav and Radotín, measures in Maniny Park are planned. The flood protection of the Prague Zoo has not yet been built, it is planned.