The need for landscape-scale water retention has been a topic of discussion in professional circles for years, and after the 2022 and the subsequent 2024 drought, the topic reached the media's attention. There is an increased societal demand for change, but practical progress has so far been minimal compared to the physical possibilities. The regional water conveyance infrastructure networks are available, some of the canals are filled or can be filled outside the irrigation season, and sufficient water is available to meet the (potential) needs of landowners. The water administration has declared that meeting the demands of landowners in this regard is a top priority and will adapt the operation of the territorial water supply infrastructure accordingly, where necessary. In practice, however, progress has been slow, for two main reasons.

In this article, these two elements of the complex issue of territorial water management are addressed. Firstly, we show how the situation of landscape water management has deteriorated over the last decades, supporting the now increasingly widely accepted thesis that a paradigm shift is inevitable that will allow the retention of orders of magnitude more water than at present. This objective cannot be achieved, however, without reinterpreting the already justified but unrealised issues of ownership, organisation and operation of tertiary works. In the second part of the article, we will examine the currently unfulfilled role of tertiary infrastructure in improving territorial water supply and the organisation needed to make meaningful progress.

The article was published in the Hungarian Water and Sewage Technology Association's (MASZESZ) journal, Hírcsatorna 2025/1.