Europe - UNEP

Park near the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers at Belgrade, Serbia. Photo credit: Milan Vatovec.
Various other construction projects have
caused controversy within the Danube basin in
recent years. Following environmental protests
from 10,000 Croats and 5,000 Hungarians in
November 2004, Croatian plans to build a
Hydroelectric Plan on the Drava River have
reportedly been put on hold (Hungarian News
Agency, 2005). Similarly, plans by the Ukraine to
build the Bystre navigation canal have sparked
tension due to Romania’s claims that the canal
would have serious environmental consequences
on the Danube delta’s ecosystem (BBC, 2005).
Within Northern Europe, the Daugava basin
has been the source of tension between Belarus,
Latvia, and Lithuania. Pollution from large
production facilities, including chemical industries
and oil refineries as well as intensive agriculture
in Belarus and Lithuania, has had a detrimental
effect on Latvia’s water supplies. However,
positive steps to alleviate transboundary impacts
have been taken with the adoption of a basinwide
agreement between Belarus, Latvia, and
Lithuania in 2003.
Accidental pollution has also proven to be a
source of tension between European countries
sharing international basins. For example, in
November of 1986, a fire broke out at the
Sandoz chemical factory in Basel, Switzerland,
causing major pollution in the Rhine River as an
estimated 30 tons of highly toxic waste entered
the water of the Rhine, which resulted in water
supplies being cut off as well as the loss of half a
million fish. The Sandoz spill was the impetus
behind the cleaning up of the Rhine basin in the
last 20 years.
Another example of accidental pollution
occurred in Spain when a supporting wall of a
reservoir containing toxic wastes burst within the
Doñana National Park causing 5,000,000 m 3 of
toxic waste to enter the Agrio River, a tributary of
the Guadiamar River. In 2000 a similar dam
break in Baia Mare in northwest Romania
occurred. The spill resulted in 100,000 m 3 of
water with high concentrations of cyanide
entering the Sasar, Lapus, Somes, Tisza and
Danube rivers before entering the Black Sea.
40 — Hydropolitical Vulnerability and Resilience along International Waters: Europe