Czechia turned a former coal mine into 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.Most the world's biggest artificial lakeA particularly striking example is Lake Most, created in the huge crater left by the transformation of the landscape by coal mining and the demolition of the old city of Most.