Danube conference at the Academy: studies on the rehabilitation of Szigetköz and Csallóköz first presented

For the event, the MTA Presidential Committee of Environmental Sciences invited all those – government officers, researchers, environmentalists – who have contributed to the settlement of disputes during the past few years.

“We have been accumulating our ecological, energy, legal, and political disputes about the Danube for decades even though the formula – theoretically – looked simple. After all, everybody would like to have sufficient amounts of clear water, healthy environment, rich and diverse flora and fauna” President of MTA László Lovász said in his opening speech welcoming the audience in the Ceremonial Hall of the Academy filled to capacity.

The president considered it as natural that an energetics expert focuses on a different segment of the extremely complex field of problems than an environmentalist, or someone living beside the Danube, and having their home in Szigetköz or Csallóköz. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences hosted the conference in order to provide a forum for Hungarian and Slovak researchers, government officers, and environmentalists to present their professional arguments in discussions on the Danube. László Lovász emphasised that irrespective of the present event, a presidential ad hoc committee of water sciences had been set up last autumn aiming primarily at assessing the optional themes of research possible to conduct successfully in the field of “water and the environment”, and the organizational background thereof at the Academy.

Szigetköz landscape Source: eurovelo.com

Dialogue among all important actors

Between 2008 and 2010, involving nearly 30 representatives of all fields of science involved, the Hungarian government analysed the possible solutions of the rehabilitation of Szigetköz.

Slovakia responded to the Hungarian research findings, proposals and suggestions in 2012 and 2013. The first joint, public revelation and assessment of research materials was supported and hosted by the MTA Presidential Committee of Environmental Sciences in MTA’s Main Building. ‘Our aim was to advance negotiations, and give a platform for the experts of the field for a rational debate,’ President of the MTA Presidential Committee of Environmental Sciences (KÖTEB) Tamás Németh told mta.hu, adding that, due partly to the preparations, the discussions were held in a friendly atmosphere. He also explained that the committee had invited all key actors to the discussion, which could serve as the next step towards the settlement of debated issues. The president of the committee regarded it as essential that both countries considered the professional expectation unquestionable: if not a 50% rise, but definitely more water would be needed in the old river bed.

It is time to summarise the latest data and results

Tamás Németh drew attention to the fact that the form of the Danube, as we know it, is a result of 19^th century river regulations. Since then, the human intervention of the most significant outcomes in nature has been the diversion of the Danube Slovakia executed almost a quarter of a century ago. It resulted in environmental changes, the majority of which was impossible to predict accurately. In addition, changeable weather, and extreme rainfalls on the upper catchment area of the Danube had also left experts unable to give answers to a number of questions. ‘By today, however, a large number of data have been collected,’ he added.

Databases of research institutes, universities, and water management organisations make wide-scale research possible. As Tamás Németh put it: if a lot of data and, after making use of them, a sufficient amount of research findings are available, if all experts, social organisations, and governmental officers can come to an agreement on certain frameworks, there will be hope for politicians seeing eye to eye more easily as well.

He claimed that the studies now revealed also underlined the fact that it was high time to reconsider the data in an analysing and evaluating manner. Research and monitoring examinations must be further conducted. He gave voice to hope for an increasing inclination for compromises, and for the critics of the issue to rely more on scientific results than on emotions while forming their views.

The President of KÖTEB emphasised MTA’s willingness to host similar events in the future as well, and he added that dialogues, joint research, and efforts for professional collaboration resulted in the standpoints recently coming closer to one another.

After professional lectures, invited non-governmental organisations shared their views, followed by a one-hour long discussion. Chair of the debate, academician László Szarka said that except for the groups deriving from the former Danube Circle, the participants had essentially found common ground. They support the best solution under given conditions, that is, the Hungarian–Slovak agreement on increased water supply compared to the past, and on forming underwater weirs. In 1995 it was possible to stabilise the state of the environmentally valuable floodplain on the Hungarian side by the use of a weir. Local governments in Szigetköz – generally supported by the population – are unified, and trust experts looking for solutions in this direction, László Szarka explained.

(At the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, a ‘Szigetköz Working Group’ also operated. The last general meeting of the body was held in 2008, however, in 2011 no more new members were elected. Therefore, the Academy does not operate a ‘Szigetköz Working Group’. Multidisciplinary cases of the environmental sciences belong to MTA KÖTEB.)