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In Johann Strauss’s classic waltz, the Danube is blue. But in the real world at the beginning of the 21st century, it is a murky waterway absorbing raw sewage from cities, pesticides and chemicals from farmers’ fields, waste from factories and bilge oil from ships.
At a meeting in Budapest this week, officials said they are growing increasingly concerned about the future of the EU’s longest river, which originates in Germany and flows through 10 countries, before emptying into the Black Sea.
The Policy Coordinator of the European Commission’s Energy and Transport division, Cesare Bernabei, believes that without radical steps to improve the Danube ‘s ecological system, drinking water supplies of 80 millions people would be in danger.
REGULATION NEEDED
"You need certainly to regulate all this. We can not still think that water is something that we have (anyway)," he told BosNewsLife. "Everywhere is growing concern about water supply, particularly in this area which is sufficiently densely populated."
Another unresolved issue is the pollution caused by NATO bombardment of Serbia in 1999, according to Milovan Bozinovic, president of the Budapest-based Danube Commission, which promotes free navigation on the river. He has concluded that chemicals released from bombed-out factories are still polluting the river.
"Part of the (current) pollution is the consequence of bombing these plants, without any taking in consideration the consequences for the countries after Serbia in the lower Danube (area). In Bulgaria , in Romania and the Black Sea," he added.
GROWING SHIPPING
Adding to the pollution is a rapid growth of shipping on the Danube. EU figures show, with most of the countries along the Danube belonging to the European Union, water transport may double within 10 years.
In Budapest, officials agreed that using modern shipping technology and curbing industrial pollution could help to restore the Danube’s ecosystem.
But that effort would be hampered by changes in the water flow aimed at flood control and power generation, explained Philip Weller executive secretary of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River.
"Human activities have tried to constrict and constraint the river, and it’s clear that this strategy has lead to ecological problems and increased flooding," he noted. However, Weller stressed, he has not given up hope that the Danube will one day, be blue again. (Parts of this BosNewsLife news story also airs on the networks Voice of America (www.voanews.com) and Deutsche Welle (www.dwelle.de) BosNewsLife News Watch is a regular look at news developments impacting and warning the Church and/or compassionate professionals).
