Seite - 1440 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

small dams is the water quality in the reservoir. This requires better care not only for the water quality in the dam lake itself but also for the run-off and pollution prevention, respectively in the whole catchment area. Furthermore, the necessity of regular preparation of plans for assessment and management of flood risks (which are regulatory documents) is both formally obligatory and directly related to the dam safety. 3. IDENTIFIED PROBLEMS AND SOME RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1. LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES In this section, the following main issues can be formulated as identified in the operation and maintenance of small dams:  After having become owners of numerous small dams without having the needed resources for their proper maintenance, many municipalities let the dams for rent. As a result, the renter usually not only restricted the access of any other parties to the reservoir but also to all dam facilities for maintenance. At the same time, the renter had no responsibility for the technical status of the dam and its appurtenant structures. In most cases, the operator used the dam reservoir as a fish farm and installed meshes at the spillway for preventing the fish to escape. Although such installations are indeed extremely dangerous for the dam structural integrity, deficiencies in the actual regulations and in the particular contract formulations made them happen in many cases.  As mentioned above, the land property was restituted in general in the 1990s. However, during the liquidation of the cooperative farms, many dams were sold by tenders. Later on, it became obvious in many cases that the legal owner of the dam didn’t have in fact anything more since the land below the reservoir was returned to its previous owners. The water in the dam lake is public state property, and the dam owner had often even no more access possibility to the facilities. This is indeed a severe issue in many cases still open and directly related to the maintenance and safety of the dam and its structures.  The previous issue is directly related to the next one as already mentioned above – the rigorous separation between dam with its appurtenant structures and the water in the reservoir. These two items are inherently connected by the purpose of the dam as well as by the Hydraulic and Structural Engineering facilities serving the reservoir water management. Attempts are currently made for overcoming this problem of sharing responsibilities. 1440