While acknowledging the inclusion of a number of environmental targets, including the protection of Danube sturgeon and improved water quality, WWF criticises the decision to increase navigation on the Danube by removing the so-called bottlenecks, obstacles to navigation during low water level. This usually involves deepening and widening the fairway with the help of old-fashioned and expensive infrastructures.

"Heavy investments in diking and dredging the Danube have been justified by various officials with reference to the Rhine river. But the Rhineland has very different conditions from the Danube area, with an industrial base that has developed over centuries and not just thanks to the river. Expecting an economic miracle from investments in Danube navigation is a myth, and potentially a very costly mistake." said Andreas Beckmann, Director of the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme.

The current focus of the proposed strategy on expensive and out-dated approaches to increase navigation risks not only waste money but destroy valuable biodiversity and associated ecosystem services, from flood protection to water purification.

“Solutions for improving inland navigation without changing drastically the nature of the river are available and are less costly in financial as well as ecological terms. We need to invest in innovative ship design that fit the existing depth of the river, better information systems, and nature friendly infrastructure.” added Beckmann.

WWF is calling on Danube countries and on Hungary as next leader of the EU Council to seize the opportunity of the Strategy to bring short and long term benefits to its population by using its enormous natural and cultural assets in a sustainable way.

About the Danube Strategy
The EU Danube Strategy aims to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in a vast region that stretches from Germany to the Black Sea, covering a fifth of the EU area and is home to 100 million people."

Source: ec.europa.eu