Private Wells Will Not Require Permit in Near Future

The current obligation to notify the authorities of the establishment of domestic, garden, and agricultural irrigation wells will be abolished, thus, no permit will be required, Napi.hu reports. From January 2024, a new, long-term regulation will come into force: shallow wells previously constructed without a permit will automatically be considered regular and permitted from 2024.

Currently, an official permit is required in all cases for the construction and use of a well because the groundwater resource is the exclusive property of the state. Under certain conditions, a simplified procedure has been possible since 2020, but the previous multi-stage water permit procedure has been maintained.

Under the new regulation, the above-mentioned wells will be fully exempt from the official procedure, provided that they are no deeper than 50 meters, do not affect the first aquifer, are for domestic and agricultural use, and are not located in an area that needs to be protected for water resource protection reasons.

For now, a so-called “well amnesty” is in force until the end of the year, the purpose of which is to ensure that shallow wells that have been installed without any regulation in the past are notified by the owners to the authorities without penalty, so that it is possible to determine exactly how many wells are in use in the country.

However, this idea has not worked so far, as it turns out that it is impossible to accurately estimate how many are in operation.

The amendment that will enter into force next year will finally resolve the erratically installed shallow wells, as from next January, all wells dug or drilled before 2024 will automatically be legally installed. Under the amended rules, for privately owned shallow wells, which are mainly garden wells, owners will only have to pay attention to the limitation of the amount of water.

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