For years, authorities debated building a barrier to protect the Klabava River, south of Prague, from sediment and acidic water spilling from nearby ponds. A dam would have solved the problem, but the project stalled due to financial and bureaucratic problems since 2018.

After plans stalled for a new dam in the Czech Republic, eight beavers saved the day seemingly overnight. “At this point, nothing that beavers do surprises me.”

The dam project, drafted in 2018 and based on a former military training site south of Prague, had been delayed by land negotiations. Local beavers built several dams, saving the government more than one million euros.

What happens when an infrastructure project is stalled for more than seven years? In most countries, the project may have been shelved but the beavers in the Brdy region of the Czech Republic had different ideas -- one which has helped the authorities save over Rs 10 crore in expense.

The beavers chose to build their dam in a drainage canal created by the military on a former training ground in the Brdy region. This area had been causing headaches for local environmentalists due to its artificial drainage system,

Beavers have saved the Czech government and its citizens $1.2 million, by flooding an area, where a dam was planned.

A beaver colony gained overnight fame by building several dams in the Brdy protected landscape area, creating a natural wetland exactly where it was needed.

A beaver colony has just saved officials in the Czech Republic $1.2 million – which is over R22 million – by building a dam that would have taken the government seven years.