The head of Polish Waters, the state water management authority, addressed the Maritime Economy and Inland Water Transport Committee on Friday in the wake of extensive flooding in the south and southwest of Poland.

Among the ‘hydrotechnical solutions’ required to mitigate the flood risk are a reservoir and dry polder, Joanna Kopczyńska said.

She told the committee that a total of 1,671 investments had been identified as necessary to safeguard areas including the Kłodzko Valley in the southwest, which was badly hit by this year’s deluge, and the historic southeastern town of Sandomierz.

Kopczyńska said civil engineering projects were needed as existing forests were insufficient to hold back “such monstrous” quantities of water as those that caused the recent devastation.

She also said a proposed reservoir may have prevented the Nysa River in the Kłodzko Valley from bursting its banks.

She added that planned investments in the provinces recently affected would run to 9 billion złoty (€2.1 billion), including the cost of the proposed reservoir to protect the Nysa, a project she said was being negotiated with the World Bank.

Polish Waters estimates the cost of repairing existing flood defenses damaged by this year’s disaster at around 3.2 billion złoty (€750 million).

Infrastructure Minister Dariusz Klimczak said he was in talks with the World Bank to secure €1.5 billion for infrastructural damage repairs.