In 2008, Czechia began flooding the lignite mine created after the old city of Most was demolished for coal; by 2014 the pit held 70.5 billion litres of water, forming a 309-hectare lake up to 75 metres deep

What does it take to give a landscape carved by decades of coal mining back to nature? The answer in Czechia, however, is becoming more complicated. The huge open-cast lignite mines in the Ústí Region were to be turned into artificial lakes after mining was completed. But as climate change brings less water and more evaporation, officials are reconsidering whether filling every giant mining pit with water is practical, or even sustainable. Now the debate is impacting the future of four major mines: ČSA, Nástup–Tušimice, Bílina and Vršany, states a 2023 news report by O Energetice CZ.

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