Amerikai Magyar Értesítő, 1987 (23. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1987-12-01 / 12. szám
16.oldal Amerikai Magyar Értesítő Beautiful ‘blue’ Danube undergoes major rerouting Critics decry damage to river banks, flow By Kay Withers Special to The Sun DUNAKILITI, Hungary — A Czechoslovak-Hungarlan hydroelectric plan to dam and reroute the Danube River could destroy a unique river land, pollute Hungary's water supplies and provide only a small fraction of the country's energy needs, some experts say. Moreover, Hungary's continued participation In the scheme — critl- cled by prominent scientists and politicians alike — may be attributable to pressure from Budapest's Czechoslovak allies. Environmentalists In both Hungary and Austria have condemned the massive, seml-completed project. Last month, developers countered with a retaliatory public relations blitz, complete with glossy brochures, a free lunch and a boat ride down the river. Engineers from the Hungarian National Water Authority and the state Ovlber construction company plan to dam the Danube In the northwestern corner of Hungary, Just downstream from the border near Bratislava. Czechoslovakia. Most of the water will be rerouted from a planned 15,000-acre reservoir Into a new 15-mlle-long channel through Gabctkovo In Slovakia (east Czechoslovakia) where another dam, with a hydroelectric power station and navigational lock. Is to be operating by 1989. A 12-mtle stretch of Danube bed. which now washes a region of tiny wtllow-llned streams, small Islands and teeming wildlife, would receive about 5 percent of Its present flow. Engineers expect to have to replant the river banks with trees able to survive such dry conditions. Since the Gabclkovo turbines will operate during hours when the energy demand Is at Its peak, the water level downstream from the generator will fluctuate considerably. To compensate for this fluctuation, a third dam 75 miles farther down river — In the beautiful Bend of the Danube between historic Esztergom and Budapest — will be necessary. Proponents of the Danube rerouting scheme presented Journalists with artlsts’lmpresslons depicting the natural harmony of the area as being barely disturbed. They also promised sufficient energy supplies from what one called "the purest and cleanest energy source." Improved navigability due to dredging and deepening, and flood prevention, due to reinforcement of the river's banks. Opponents. Including members the Hungarian Academy of Science and eminent foreign naturalists such as Austria's Konrad Lorenz, claim that untold environmental damage may be done In return for little energy gained. According to some experts, the region's river valley runs the greatest risk of damage. Here the Danube spreads out Into a wide waterway as It Journeys 2,000 miles to the Black Sea. The river laps tiny Islands and nourishes smali rlverlets In the 75,000-acre Szigetköz region on the Hungarian side and the larger, formerly Hungarian, Csallóköz on the Slovak side. Environmentalists say this countryside will be destroyed If the river Is rerouted Into a concrete canal. "The Szigetköz Is an ecological unit with special flora and fauna," said Judit Vásárhelyi of Hungary's Blues environmental lobby. A book published In Austria by environmental group«, Including the World Wildlife Fund, lists 220 species of birds, 50 species of fish and 5,000 species of land animals In the Immediate area. Miklós Szántó, director of the rerouting operation, confirmed that forest land strip« of up to 300 yards wide on each bank probably will be removed. “We will probably change the trees," he said, "because the soil water will be less." Mr. Szanto said engineers would reforest more acreage than they destroyed. Sources at Budapest's natural history museum said the museum has received a government allocation of $80 million to collect species that might become extinct due to the loss of their habitat In the Szigetköz. The deterioration in quality of bank-filtered water resources is a serious consequence. The second major objection to the scheme — excluding doomsday predictions of earthquakes shattering the dams and flooding Budapest — Is that the combination of the concrete banks of the Dunakllitl reservoir, the artificial channel to Gabclkovo. the necessarily reinforced banks of the Danube proper and the faster flow of the water will hinder the natural cleansing of Hungary's bank-filtered drinking water. "Of all the disadvantageous effects," wrote the Danube Circle ecological group last year, "the probable decrease and deterioration In quality of so-called bank-filtered water resources Is the most dangerous." Pal Vargha, a chemical engineer with the National Water Authority. was reportedly worried about heavy-metals pollution — mainly from Czechoslovak Industry — In the reservoir and elsewhere. But Mr. Szanto has dismissed environmentalists' concern as “an anxiety complex." Their catchword, he said. Is "follow me. I'm going nowhere." Some dam planners do recognize possible dangers, however. László S. Nagy, an engineer with the Water Authority, said the Hungarian wall of the reservoir will be carpeted with gravel and clay to Imitate the natural bank as much as possible. "But the Czechoslovak side." he said, “we don't know. It will be similar, of course, but more artificial." Therein lies a political as well as an ecological problem. Talk of damming the Danube at Gabclkovo and Nagymaros. Hungary. began In the early 1950s. In 1977 the Czechoslovak and Hungarian prime ministers finally agreed In writing to a formal undertaking. The Czechoslovaks started work Immediately. but environmental doubts surfaced In Hungary. By 1983 an Academy of Science committee had come out against the dam, and In 1984 the Danube Circle was formed without government approval. By then Budapest was not anxious to proceed on the project. "We wanted to delay, also because we had to pay 50 percent of the costs," a Hungarian journalist said. “But the Czechs urgently needed power. The Hungarian government signed under pressure from the Czechs," Including threats to Czechoslovakia's Hungarian mlnorlty and demands of Increased compensation. In 1985, the Hungarian government "stopped the work of the environmental committee and set up a new one within the parliament," said Academy of Science member Bruno Straub, chairman of the new committee, which ruled In favor of the dam. Perhaps to forestall further changes of heart, engineers said work has speeded up. moving from five-month to three-month phases. Ironically, the Gabclkovo-Nagy- maros dam may make more of a dent In the environment than In the energy supply. Hungary's share of power — a maximum of 1.8 billion kilowatt hours a year — Is expected to fill a feared energy hole at the beginning of the 1990s. But between 1996 and 2016 about 70 percent of this energy will go to Austria to pay back credits from that country that enabled the Hungarians to build the dam. “It Is true that Nagymaros will represent only about 1 percent of the Hungarian power grid," Mr. Nagy said, “but we wanted to dam the river to facilitate navigation anyway, so why not have the power station too?" It is this approach that Is the despair of environmentalists. They contend that Austria needs power from Gabel kovo-Nagy maros precisely because Its own people successfully opposed — In projected power stations at Hamburg and Zwentendorf — Just the kind of potential environmental damage that Hungary Is now Importing. THE SUN ______1987. december WITH PERESTROIKA. ToVAWSH, l PROMISE M3U WILL hame PEACHES AND CREAM! 1 DONIT l>KE peaches and Cream. AH... BdT 1 ALSO PROMISE YOU WILL LIKE. PEACHES Ant> CREAM. The Christian Science Monitor
