27/04/2006 - Vienna, Austria/Bucharest,
Romania – With some 200,000ha in Romania and another
220,000ha in Serbia under water following recent
floods, more natural retention areas are needed
along the Danube River and its tributaries in
order to limit the effects of inevitable future
flooding, says WWF.
“Restoring former floodplain
areas, especially along the lower stretches of
the Danube River can yield multiple benefits not
only in terms of enhanced flood protection, by
soaking up floodwaters, but also for local livelihoods
and nature,” said Christine Bratrich, head of
WWF's Danube-Carpathian freshwater programme.
Floodplains are natural retention
areas that act like sponges. They are broad flat
areas of low-lying land near rivers, lakes and
coasts that act as a natural storage reservoir,
allowing large volumes of water to be stored and
slowly and safely released down rivers and into
the groundwater.
The estimated value of the various
benefits from Danube floodplains, including flood
management, water purification and fish production,
is estimated to be €7,660 per hectare a year.
Water purification through nutrient retention
of Danube floodplains is worth an estimated €368
million per year. The Danube provides drinking
water for 20 million people, and its wetlands
are also among the richest natural areas. Some
100 fish species and 5,000 other animal species
live along the Danube, the majority of them in
wetland areas. The Danube Delta, a world heritage
site, provides resting and breeding areas for
more then 320 bird species, including 70 per cent
of the world’s population of white pelicans.
An estimated 8,101km2 of floodplains
on the middle and lower Danube east of Vienna
have restoration potential. A number of countries,
including Hungary and Germany, have come to recognise
the value of restoring floodplains as natural
retention areas. Bavaria plans to create new flood
retention volume of 20,000,000m3 by 2020. Following
previous major flooding on the Tisza River, a
major tributary of the Danube, the Hungarian government
launched a major programme to give more space
to the river, including restoration of 70,000ha
of former wetland areas.
Implementing the Lower Danube
Green Corridor could significantly contribute
to the creation of flood retention areas. The
agreement, signed in 2000 by the governments of
Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine, calls
among other things for the restoration of some
220,000ha of floodplain areas along the lower
Danube from the Iron Gates dam to the Danube Delta.
At present, only 6 per cent of the Lower Danube
Green Corridor Agreement has been implemented.
“Implementing the agreement
presents a win-win situation, yielding proceeds
for people, in the form of flood protection and
local livelihoods, as well as for nature,” said
Orieta Hulea, WWF coordinator for the Lower Danube
Green Corridor.
WWF calls on the governments
of Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine to move
forward in implementing the Lower Danube Green
Corridor, and calls on the EU support an integrated
approach to flood management that works with nature,
not against it.
END NOTES:
• According to news reports,
at least 2,500 people have been forced to evacuate
their homes following several breaks in dykes
on the Danube in Romania. More evacuations are
expected. Sections of dyke have given way along
the Danube in southern Romania near the communities
of Bistret, Dabuleni, Sarata and Oltina. A 20m
section of dyke gave way near Bistret, flooding
at least four villages and 24,000ha of land. Disaster
response teams are planning to evacuate approximately
9,000 people from their homes.
• From a ten-year comparative
study of the world’s great flood disasters from
1950–1998 by the German insurance company, Munich
Reinsurance, the number of global flood events
increased threefold: 1950 – 1979 – 7/9 major floods
per decade; 1980 – 1989 – 20 major floods; 1989
– 1998 – 34 major floods.
• For over a decade, WWF has
been working to restore the floodplains of the
Lower Danube and its tributaries in Bulgaria,
Romania, Ukraine and Moldova, thus contributing
to the practical implementation of the Lower Danube
Green Corridor Agreement signed by the governments
of Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine in 2000.
