Meeting ICPDR representatives in Budapest

On Wednesday afternoon we met with members of the ICPDR in Budapest at the Ministry of Rural Development and Water Resources. Maria Galambos is the Director. Her colleague Dr. Jozsef Gayer, Chair of the Global Water Partnership for Central and Eastern Europe and three of their assistants joined us. Representing CRWA's Board were John Clark, Laurie Doyle, Dianne Hall and me, Jerry Murphy, with Kate Bowditch and many other members of the CRWA delegation.

 

We learned a great deal about the cooperation among the member Danubian nations, each with their own needs and interests and governed by their own water management organizations. Agreement is not always possible, but cooperation and mutual interest seem to be recognized. For instance, a controversial power plant dam is proposed down river that would provide 10% of the power needs for

 

Romania at the cost of flooding a good portion of the land upstream and interrupting flow downstream. Negotiations are ongoing.

I was interested to learn the impact of Danube Celebration Days held throughout the Danubian nations on June 29th this year, which have brought terrific public awareness to the river and its fragility and importance to the region. Many people take their water for granted and education is essential to create awareness of where and how their drinking water is obtained and how it is also used for farming and transportation. There is very little untreated discharge of sewerage anywhere in the watershed and in fact, above Vienna the river water is deemed drinkable in normal times.

Kate gave a wonderful presentation on the achievements of CRWA and how it came to be that our 80 mile river won the River prize in recognition of citizens sustained efforts that have resulted in the Charles River coming from one of America's most polluted in 1965 to the cleanest urban river in 2010. Kate's presentation had our new friends sitting up, taking notes and paying attention. They were also encouraged by our success.