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Gabcikovo Dam Controversy Heats Up Again -- International Court Of Justice Hands Down Decision Tomorrow

The Danube--Europe's Greatest River


Danube River Loses in the Hague with Decision on Gabcikovo Dam

river September 25th, 1997

Gland, Switzerland--The International Court of Justice in The Hague today handed down an inconclusive decision relating to the Gabcikovo dam in central Europe, its first environmental case ever. The ruling condemns the Danube River to potentially years more of political wrangling and dangerously low water levels, said WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature today in a joint statement with Greenpeace Slovakia, the Daphne Foundation and the Reflex group.

Greenpeace Slovakia , and fellow Slovakian environmental group, the Daphne Foundation, along with Hungary's leading river-ecology group, Reflex, and WWF have openly expressed their concerns regarding Gabcikovo since the early stages of dam construction.

"We're satisfied that the judges have said that Hungary and Slovakia must negotiate a solution together that better accounts for the environmental impacts of the Gabcikovo dam," said Alexander Zinke, project officer of WWF's Green Danube programme. "But we fear that because of the current difficult political situation, the two sides won't be able to agree, leaving the Danube caught in the middle, condemned to continued damage. So we're asking the European Commission to step in again."

Reflex spokesman Jozsef Lajtmann emphasized the serious environmental damage already caused by Gabcikovo: "Our local economy and our drinking water depends on the natural dynamics of the Danube. Over the last five years, this powerful river was turned into an isolated ditch, unable to secure the needed large-scale infiltration into the underground and fish migration into the unique side-arm system on both sides of the river bed."

dam An agreement to begin construction on the Gabcikovo dam complex was signed by then Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) and Hungary in 1977. In the late 1980s, bowing to public pressure and heeding various environmental assessments (including one by WWF), Hungary abandoned its plans and in 1989 began advocating halting the project.

Several attempts at bilateral negotiations between Slovakia and Hungary have failed since then. Slovakia persisted with construction, and in 1992 began diverting water to power the Gabcikovo plant. Today Slovakia is currently diverting more than 80 percent of the Danube's water through the plant, leaving only 10-20% flowing through the original river bed and to nearby floodplains.

Dr. Jan Seffer, of Daphne Foundation adds that, "In addition to the 6,000 hectares of floodplain forest that have been directly destroyed, the present operations are threatening Europe's second largest drinking water reservoir that lies just below the Gabcikovo hydropower complex, and causing further degradation of Danube floodplain forest."

For more information:

Philip Weller or Alexander Zinke, WWF Green Danube Programme Tel: +43-1-48817-253/ -254; E-mail: wwf@wwf.at Elizabeth Foley, Press Officer, WWF-International Tel: +41 22 364 9554; E-mail: efoley@wwfnet.org

Photographs available from Michele Depraz, WWF-International Tel: +41 22 364 9202 /9203; E-mail: mdepraz@wwfnet.org