In Ústí n. L., the construction of a flood protection embankment has begun

Ústí nad Labem - Construction of a flood protection embankment began today at the Střekov waterfront in Ústí nad Labem. The company SMP CZ will build it for approximately 85 million crowns by June of next year. The investor is the Elbe River Basin Authority. Martin Doksanský, director of SMP CZ, told ČTK.
    The Střekov waterfront is one of the most affected areas in Ústí nad Labem during floods. Therefore, the city leadership has worked hard to build effective flood protection facilities. The Elbe River Basin Authority decided on an embankment that is about one kilometer long, one meter high, and six meters wide. There will be a bicycle path and a sidewalk on it.
    To prevent water from seeping into the basements of houses on the waterfront and into adjacent roads during floods, builders must create an underground injected barrier along the entire length of the embankment, which will reach depths of up to 13 meters in some places.
    The city has decided to acquire mobile walls for this embankment, which can be raised to a height of up to 2.5 meters. This is a sufficient height to protect the Střekov waterfront against a twenty-year flood, which is about a ten-meter high level of the Elbe River. The city council has already selected a company that will manufacture the mobile walls for 33 million crowns.
    Last year, during the spring floods, the Elbe River peaked at a height of 8.8 meters in the regional capital. During the flood in 2002, the level reached 11.8 meters in Ústí nad Labem. Typically, the river has a height of two meters in the regional capital.
    Due to flood barriers, a dispute arose at the end of March last year between then-Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek (CSSD) and Ústí's mayor Petr Gandalovič (ODS). Paroubek accused the city leadership of neglecting the protection of residents from floods, unlike Prague. Gandalovič countered that flood protection measures are a matter for the state. Media speculated that the mutual attacks were not triggered by the floods, but by the fact that both politicians were leading their parties' candidate lists for the parliamentary elections in the Ústí region.