Eugen Tóth

Eugen Tóth is bringing groundbreaking solutions to the challenges of microclimate change in urban areas, while also changing citizen’s attitudes about the importance of rainwater. Since most people live in cities, Eugen’s solution has strength in its simplicity—holding and circulating water where it falls to impact a wide area. Using campaigns, negotiation, education, and discussion, he is creating new possibilities for water conservation.

Eugen had developed a way to overcome climate change within the city of Prešov while also changing peoples’ attitudes about the value of rainwater. His work is crucial because it does not focus on rainwater harvesting like others, but on holding water where it falls and then circulating it in the same area. In this way he treats rainwater not as a commodity but as a resource that can be owned by the public; a source of social cohesion and economic prosperity. Eugen’s approach relies on a model of local environmental management that recognizes the important interconnections between the environment and the city.
For Eugen to successfully change perceptions about rainwater as a resource there must be a political commitment to funding and permission to plan. He has invested in lobbying and communications with municipal representatives and has increased public awareness with educational activities and an information campaign. This enables him to separate his activities and apply various architectural, technical, and biotechnical approaches to meet his objectives, without limiting the freedoms of people living in urban areas. For Eugen, this means not only developing a new water management system, but circulating water so that it protects urban areas from external environmental influences.

One of the biggest challenges facing the world is climate change. Conflicts in the 21st century will be over natural resources, particularly water. Most people in Central Europe understand climate change as largely external, and feel unable to make a difference at a local level, however, water is also often thought of in its most common form, as stemming from local rivers or underground.

Thirty years ago only 35 percent of the human population lived in cities, today, it is more then 50 percent. The result has been an exploitation of resources from the surrounding areas, which must then be extracted from further and further away. People in urban areas do not consider rainwater an important resource. In turn, they are often wasteful with water and unwittingly contribute to climate change across the world. Many contemporary cities, especially in Central Europe, see rainwater as a necessary inconvenience and it is often disposed from a city with waste and sewage. For instance, in Kosice, the second largest city in Slovakia, this means approximately 51 million cubic meters of water is discarded from the city each year. In the past, this water seeped into the earth and circulated in the area where it fell. It also refilled the water supply for a city.

However, losing this amount of water and underestimating its monetary value, are not the only problems of urban settlements. Losing this water also leads to the creation of hot-city islands which over-dry the city and increase dust in the air. Some of the results are changes in microclimate, lowering humidity levels, and increasing people’s allergies in the city. In addition, the temperature may increase, generally 2 to 8 degrees Celsius as compared with similarly placed villages.

In mountainous Slovakia there is another particularly undesirable consequence of this treatment of rainwater; high temperature air currents above cities may negatively influence the wind and push normal rainfall away from cities into surrounding mountains. When cooling, they can change into large and fast rainfalls which cause local floods. Rainfalls above cities tend to be more extreme, and existing urban canals are insufficient.

We are facing a systemic problem in the urban areas where the significant stakeholders are not motivated to change. Businesses do not see the added value to increasing investments and municipalities are not pressed by informed citizens.

Eugen is changing the way urban residents collect and use rainwater by demonstrating their ability to enhance our quality of life. His strategy establishes an integrated water management system to keep rainfall circulating in the same area. Ideologically, it proves that improvement is possible from individual land owners, to neighborhoods, and in city quarters. Eugen is developing a new understanding about our responsibility for climate change.

As a businessman, Eugen knows the only way to achieve a large-scale project is to divide it into several steps diachronically and in to several modules by geography. At the root of his idea lies a conviction that the living environment of a city can be improved if water is considered a valuable resource. To achieve this, it is important to design a variety of biotechnical, technological, and architectural solutions that can be implemented at the local level. Once integrated water management is established in Prešov and is successful in culminating water and overcoming undesirable effects from its lack, Eugen is convinced the project can be self-financed by licenses to other municipalities and countries.

At the initial stage of his project, “Water of Prešov for People” will cover an area of 7,040 hectares and directly impact 95,000 people. When Eugen and his team at Ludia a Voda (People and Water), finished their study of integrated management of rainwater the critical work began. Founded by Ashoka Fellow Michal Kravcik who received the Goldman Prize for his environmental work, Ludia a Voda creates a platform for discussion, brings various stakeholders to the table, and implements the results of studies into municipal legislation. By incorporating water management into the city legislature it crucially defines zones, and based on a character of the urban area it will define a specific module appropriate for the area. Modules are in fact separate sub-projects of water absorption and culmination.

The first modules should be constructed in two to three years. During that time Eugen sees the thrust of his work as convincing ordinary people and municipal representatives (he has won support from the mayor’s office and individual members of the city council) about the necessity and importance of his project. The locus of information will be the Consultation Center, using it to establish educational activities. Eugen is working on a website and a manual that will communicate his ideas to the public and become part of the first activities at the Center. He is aware that an information center will require solid background on all aspects of human interaction with water, which is why the Center will function under the auspices of Ludia a Voda. Through the Center Eugen will manage broader educational, monitoring, and information activities. One of the most tangible goals of this strategy is for the municipal authorities to establish a requirement from every developer to create a physical space and possibilities for holding and circulating water for an integrated water management system. The Center will consult with individuals and companies to take part in the system, intervene in cases of misuse, and build pilot schemes that citizens may replicate. Eugen’s activities are also focused on advocacy at the municipal level, and more importantly, an advocacy campaign among citizens. He believes success will come if and when citizens in Prešov actively participate in water management

Using another project, “Blue Schools”, in cooperation with methodic centers, city, and regional authorities, Eugen will launch a more targeted education campaign. He believes the education of children is an excellent place to begin and will influence their future understanding of public space. Participating schools will have localized systems constructed to hold rainwater that may be used for a variety of purposes. This module may receive significant financial support from the Structural Funds of the European Union and would be a wonderful addition to offer in the coursework of primary and secondary schools—including geography, physics, and biology.

Eugen knows that thorough and realistic financial planning is crucial for success. Since the water management project in the third largest city in Slovakia is estimated to cost 1 billion Slovak crowns (US$44 million), Eugen divided it into modules. This way, each may seek unique funding and be implemented separately. Eugen understands that if he is to have significant impact on peoples’ perception of rainfall and if other cities are to follow, he cannot implement in a smaller city. Prešov is also a city where Eugen can use his personal contacts and good name: As a local businessman, a former member of the Commission for Construction and Environment on the municipal council of the neighboring city of Kosice, and in cooperation with one of the most important environmental citizen organizations in water management, Ludia a Voda.

Eugen’s project is unique in many respects. To begin, spatial protection of water means that every green and available patch in the city will accumulate water and provide a source for underground waters as well as prevent over drying of urban spaces. Solidarity between the city and the environment means that no activity can have a negative impact on the area surrounding the city. Eugen is also forging partnerships between stakeholders in local communities and the larger city. This is turn forges a principle of subsidiarity, where water protection becomes part and parcel of a lifestyle of individual members of the community, i.e. each manager and owner of a green patch will bear personal responsibility. This leads to the last and overarching principle that the activities are sustainable. Because of the size of contemporary cities, Eugen is convinced that only by minimizing their impact on the environment and climate, will we be able to prevent flooding and further negative changes in the microclimates of cities.

Eugen is exploring possibilities to develop his idea in other parts of Slovakia and the region. Concrete negotiations are happening in the town of Cadca, in the north of Slovakia, and in several other parts of the country.

Though Eugen is a neophyte to environmental concerns, he possesses determination and vision. In 1991 he founded a company, Compservice in Kosice, and during the early 1990s when companies were quickly founded and dissolving he managed to build a reputation as an excellent businessman. After fifteen years with his company stable and requiring less of his attention, he was tired of being a business manager and began exploring other areas of interest. Eugen does not consider himself an idealist or a radical environmentalist, but has a pragmatic vision about the need for sustainability and relishes this challenge.

While not an idealist himself, Eugen has been influenced by idealists such as Ashoka Fellow Michal Kravcik, Chairman of Ludia a Voda. Eugen got the ideas for his current project from their meeting in 2003. Kravcik involved him in various activities that focused on water management and conservation. Eugen knew that his management skills and successful business career made him a valuable asset and he felt the need to do more with his life.

During his meetings with Michal, Eugen recognized the differences in how people operate and manage in the citizen sector, and offered his services. He became instrumental in the project Vodny Les (Water Forest) that Ludia a Voda implemented in High Tatras, after a storm destroyed the forest. These ad hoc initiatives culminated in the municipal work in Kosice and inspired him to launch his project, Water of Prešov for People.

Eugen is married and has two daughters, Lucia and Livia.