More than 780,000 litres of water for young trees: E.ON Volunteer Watering wraps up for 2026

The 2026 season of Volunteer Watering (Önkéntes Vízadás) ended in late September. The nationwide community tree-watering campaign was organised by FŐKERT Urban Park Management and BeEco with the participation of the 10 Million Trees Foundation, and from 2026 it has E.ON as its title sponsor. The initiative aimed to help trees under five years old, which are still especially vulnerable, survive increasingly dry summers. When this year’s season began, nobody could have known that the driest summer of the century lay ahead. Looking back, organising community watering proved especially valuable.

The movement was built around BeEco’s free eco-app. The app’s map marks thirsty trees in yellow and red and shows the nearest places to get water. Volunteers log each watering they complete and collect points for it. This year the programme also reached beyond Budapest. Alongside FŐKERT’s trees, 15 local authorities joined in total, including several Budapest districts and municipalities in E.ON’s Transdanubian service area such as Pécs, Veszprém, Kecskemét and Székesfehérvár.

This year more than 22,000 trees and nearly 15,000 wells and water points were added to the map. By the end of the season, 2,162 active volunteers had watered trees 24,693 times, giving young trees more than 780,000 litres of water. By comparison, Volunteer Watering launched last year in Budapest only, with around 1,500 volunteers and just over 500,000 litres of water, so participation and coverage grew significantly this year. Beyond its sponsorship, E.ON’s own employees took part in the watering, and the company ran a separate campaign to raise awareness of why the programme matters.