29/06/2005– Busy shipping
traffic is threatening Europe's second longest
river, says WWF on Danube Day, an international
festival that aims to ensure the protection
of the Danube River.
The global conservation organization is calling
for an ecological assessment of impacts on
the Danube following a European Union plan
to turn a major part of the river into a continuous
navigable “highway” from the North Sea to
the Black Sea.
The EU's Trans-European Networks for Transport
(TENs-T) Programme has re-named the river
as the Pan-European Transport Corridor VII,
a corridor that the EU says is needed to economically
improve the transportation of goods and people,
especially between former EU Member States
with new eastern Member States and new trade
markets as far east as China.
“How can anyone justify damaging the river
through more uncoordinated and unsustainable
navigation projects, knowing the seriousness
of the damages that navigation has already
caused?” said Mike Baltzer, Director of the
WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme.
TENs-T supports future projects aimed at
reducing ‘bottlenecks’ in the Danube – locations
where navigation is difficult for big ships
–- to improve inland navigation.
"In most cases, this means deepening
or regulating the river at ecologically valuable
places where serious environmental damage
could result," added Baltzer.
"We are particularly concerned about
about navigation projects that could soon
be approved and implemented for some of the
Danube’s last free-flowing non-dammed stretches,
including the majestic Wachau in Austria and
the stretch of river between Vienna and Bratislava."
According to new report coordinated by the
Vienna-based International Convention for
the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR)
the TENs-T projects could further damage the
entire river system.
The report, Danube River Basin Analysis 2004,
states that navigation occurs on nearly all
parts of the Danube, and that construction
and maintenance of the navigation channel,
sluices, and harbours have had significant
negative effects on the aquatic environment.
It also warns that an alarming 78 per cent,
or 2,170km, of the Danube River may already
have experienced widespread and permanent
changes because of past human uses such as
navigation, and that over 85 per cent of the
Danube could risk failing to meet the EU’s
Water Framework Directive by 2015.
“Before more damage happens, the river must
be subject to environmental impact assessment
and should meet standards of EU environmental
law," said Baltzer. "Otherwise,
the damage may be irreversible."
