Gabčíkovo – Nagymaros Dams

Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros Dams

The Gabčíkovo – Nagymaros Dams (more precisely Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros Waterworks, Hungarian: Bős–nagymarosi vízlépcső, Slovak: Sústava vodných diel Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros) is a large barrage project on the Danube. It was initiated by the Budapest Treaty of 16 September 1977 between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the People's Republic of Hungary. The project aimed at preventing catastrophic floods, improving river navigability and producing clean electricity. Only a part of the project has been finished in Slovakia, under the name Gabčíkovo Dam, because Hungary unilaterally abandoned the construction due to environmental concerns. This caused a still unresolved international dispute between Slovakia and Hungary. Both parties turned to the International Court at The Hague for a ruling.

Budapest Treaty

The joint Hungarian-Czechoslovak project was agreed upon on 16 September 1977 in the "Budapest Treaty". The treaty envisioned a cross-border barrage system between the towns of Gabčíkovo, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (now Slovak Republic) and Nagymaros, People's Republic of Hungary (now Hungary). The dams would eliminate regular flooding (like the disastrous ones of 1954 and 1965) and provide a clean source of electric power. They would also allow year-long navigability of the river and serve as a part of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal system of inland navigation.

The plan was to divert part of the river into an artificial canal at Dunakiliti (a village in Hungary) to the hydroelectric power plant near Gabčíkovo (eight turbines, 720 MW). The canal would return the water into a deepened original riverbed and at Nagymaros a smaller dam and power-plant (158 MW) would be constructed. The plant in Gabčíkovo was to be a peak-power plant and the dam in Nagymaros, about 100 km downstream, was to limit fluctuations of the water level.

Because most of the construction was planned to occur in Slovak territory, the Hungarian government was obligated to participate in some construction in Slovakia, to ensure equal investment by both sides. Electricity produced was to be shared equally between the two countries.

An important provision of the treaty was its Article 15.1, which stated: "the Contracting Parties shall ensure, by the means specified in the joint contractual plan, that the quality of the water in the Danube is not impaired as a result of the construction and operation of the System of Locks".

Limited project

In 1981 Hungary asked for a slowdown of the project because of economic problems^{[citation needed]}. In 1984 a movement protesting against the dam, the "Danube Circle" (Duna Kör), was founded in Hungary, which was later awarded the Right Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize for protecting the Danube. The group objected to the withholding of information on the project from the public by the Communist government to avoid debate on its environmental impact. Biologists worried that the dams would damage both the treasured scenery of the Danube Bend and the underground water reserves on which more than a million Hungarians depend, especially around Budapest. After an intensive campaign the project became widely hated in Hungary as a symbol of the old regime. In Slovakia, construction continued and many people were involved in building the hydro-electric plant. In 1989, when most of the project on the Slovak side had been constructed, the Hungarian government decided to suspend it, without informing^{[citation needed]} the government of Czechoslovakia.

After discussion among experts in Czechoslovakia about what to do with the construction site, 7 proposals were put forward in 1992.

Proposal	Description	Comment
A	Complete the original plans from 1977 together with Hungary.	Slovakian preference
B	Complete only the Czechoslovak part of the waterworks.
C	Reduce the reservoir, build the waterworks only on the territory of the Slovak Republic and postpone construction at Nagymaros in Hungary. Split the shared reservoir into two with a dam and instead of the dam in Dunakiliti build a dam in Čunovo. This variant is called temporal, due to it is technically possible to build a Dunakiliti dam and flood Čunovo dam in order to finish waterworks according to 1977 treaty.	winning project
D	Complete only the upper part of the dam and finish the Dunakiliti dam.
E	Use the waterworks only for flood prevention and to ensure navigability.
F	Stop construction and retain the site in its current state.
G	Remove all buildings and return the river to its original state.	Hungarian preference

In the end it was decided to switch to an alternative solution on a smaller scale, Proposal C. The artificial canal would start at Čunovo, part of the Slovak capital city Bratislava, and the Gabčíkovo power plant would operate in run-of-the-river mode with no water level fluctuation. Construction started in November 1991. In October 1992 diversion of part of the water into the canal started and the Čunovo reservoir was filled; the secondary structures (such as the power-plant) were finished and made operational in 1996.

Parts of the waterworks

Built parts

Hydroelectric power station at Gabčíkovo Dam

• Supply channel for Čunovo Dam conveys water from Bratislava about 10 km to Čunovo.
• Čunovo Dam is the first level of the Waterworks, producing 24 MW of electricity, and there is an additional smaller power plant with 1 MW power output. Čunovo includes also the Čunovo Water Sports Centre, a site of world championships in water slalom and rafting.
• Hrušov reservoir (replacing the joint Slovak-Hungarian Dunakiliti reservoir) accumulates water for the main power plant in Gabčíkovo and also regulates water level. It is 16 km long and from 1 to 4 km wide. Its capacity is 196 million cubic metres. As part of the Proposal C redesign, the reservoir was reduced in size and separated from Hungarian territory by a 10.5 km long embankment.
• Gabčíkovo Dam is the main part of the waterworks. It consists of two main structures: a hydropower plant and two lock chambers. This level of the waterworks was designed to use differential water level to produce electricity, to allow ships to pass safely through locks and to divert flood water. The chambers are on the left bank of the Danube and the difference in water levels is about 20 metres. The power plant on the right riverbank was designed to produce 2650 GWh annually. A 10 m wide road bridge passes over the complex. Operation of the power plant is fully automated.
• Outlet channel leads water back to the old riverbed and also helps against floods. The channel is 185 m wide at the bottom and 8.2 km long and re-enters the Danube at Sap.
• Control works in the old Danube riverbed.

Nagymaros

The waterworks on the Danube were designed to have an additional level at Nagymaros, consisting of a reservoir 95 km long and the Nagymaros power plant. This level was to be located between the Hungarian towns of Visegrád and Nagymaros and its purpose was to use the gradient of the reservoir for production of electricity and also to allow ships to pass. The Gabčíkovo works were designed for control and peak running of the power plant, and the Nagymaros works as an equalising power plant to provide better conditions for shipping and to regulate peak outflow from Gabčíkovo. Because the Nagymaros works were not built, the Gabčíkovo power plant cannot work at peak efficiency, which causes appreciable economic damage. Non-existence of Nagymaros dam also causes main obstacle of inland navigation on the 2400 km Danube Pan-European corridor due to low levels of water. Hungary requests Slovakia to manage regulation works on problematic stretch of Danube that had to be solved by Nagymaros backwater. Transportation damages include also missing upgrade of river Váh waterway in Slovakia.

Lawsuit

After Czechoslovakia split up in 1993, the newly established Slovak Republic carried on with the project. In 1989 Hungary abandoned the site when scientists on both sides of the border expressed fears about the environmental consequences. After Hungary tried to terminate the 1977 treaty in May 1992 both parties (Hungary and Slovakia) agreed to take their dispute to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. In 1994, the Socialists came back into power in Hungary but could hardly back out of the court case, which was hailed as a landmark: for the first time, the court would rule over an environmental dispute. Hearings on the case were held between 3 March and 15 April 1997, and the Court paid a site visit (the first ever in its history). Besides other issues, the Hungarian representatives wanted the court to decide whether or not Czechoslovakia was entitled to embark on Proposal C, and to rule that the 1977 treaty was not binding on Slovakia and Hungary. The court handed down a decision in 1997:

• Hungary was not allowed in 1989 to stop and later abandon its share of the work on the Waterworks according to the 1977 treaty and its attached implements;
• Czechoslovakia was allowed to prepare and build alternative provisional solution, Proposal C, in November 1991, but it was not allowed to unilaterally begin operation of Proposal C in October 1992;
• Hungary's notification of withdrawal from the 1977 treaty on 19 May 1992 did not in fact terminate the treaty, and the treaty is therefore still valid and binding on both parties;
• Slovakia, as a successor to Czechoslovakia, became a party to the 1977 treaty; and
• In the event that Hungary and Slovakia could not find a solution through negotiations, Hungary was required to pay damages to Slovakia.

Another 4 months of negotiations between Slovakia and Hungary led to a treaty between the two countries about the ICJ judgment. In March 1998 the government of Slovakia approved this treaty, but the government of Hungary, which was supposed to build Nagymaros or a Pilismarót waterworks, delayed approving the treaty and proclaimed a competition for the project. After elections in Hungary, the new government cancelled this competition. In 1998, after two appeals to Hungary, the Slovak government turned to the International Court, demanding the Nagymaros part be built. As of 2006, the international dispute was still not resolved.

Technical parameters

Gabčíkovo sluice

• The area of the Čunovo reservoir is 40 km², exclusively on the Slovak side (the original Hrušov-Dunakiliti reservoir was to be 60 km²). The operational water level is 131.1 metres above sea level (minimal and maximum levels are 129 and 131.5 m respectively).
• The power station has eight vertical Kaplan turbines with runners 9.3 m in diameter and a maximum capacity of 90 MW each. Total capacity is 720 MW at operational discharge of 4000 m³/s. Water level differences are 24 and 12.88 m.
• The original river bed has a discharge of between 250 and 600 m³/s.
• Two navigation locks were built. A bypass canal will handle floods.
• In 1996, Europe's largest artificial whitewater slalom course, the Water Sports Centre Čunovo, was built on a river island at the head of the bypass canal. When operating at capacity, it diverts 22 m³/s into the bypass canal.
• The Gabčíkovo Hydroelectric Power Station produces 2600 GWh of electricity annually, making it the largest hydroelectric plant in Slovakia. It supplies around 8% of the country's electricity consumption.

Environmental consequences

The threatened ecological catastrophe did not materialise during the following years; on the contrary, the Waterworks fixed several environmental problems in the region:

• Protection of the area against floods, which caused big damages in the past^{[citation needed]};
• Regulation of the water level of Danube, which means year-round navigability of the river^{[citation needed]};
• Stabilisation of the stream means improved environmental parameters: improved quality of potable water and stopping falling groundwater level (which improves conditions for agriculture and stops desiccation of floodplain forests, as a result of closing up meanders)^{[citation needed]};
• stabilisation of the bottom and stream of the Danube^{[citation needed]}.

Trivia

The switchyard of the power station is disguised on Google Maps [5].

See also

• List of crossings of the Danube River

Sources

• Chmelár, V.: Dunaj energetický, vyd. Electra Žilina, 1992

External links

• Treaty between the Hungarian People´s Republic and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic concerning the construction and operation of the Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros system of locks
• Documents about the Gabčíkovo dam and its impact (alternative link)
• Details of the conflict over the project (PDF)
• Bibliography on Water Resources and International Law, Peace Palace Library
• Annual reports on environmental monitoring
• Gabčíkovo Dam Virtual Tour
• Historie Soustavy vodních děl Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros
• Gabčíkovo: patálie bez konce