Dam of Gabcíkovo-Nagymaros
At the contract of Budapest 16. September 1977 the former
Czechoslovakia and Hungary agreed to built a gigantic an
interconnected barrage between Gabcíkovo nearby Bratislava and
Nagymaros in Hungary to generate energy. The first planning phase
of the project leads back till the year 1946.
Pic.1: Plan of the dam Gabcíkovo project
The construction was soon blamed, first from Hungarian and later
from Austrian experts too, to have major destructive impacts to the
nearby Austrian Danube meadow, the landscape, the area of
settlement of many animals (especially threatened birds) along the
Slovakian-Hungarian boarder and to the water supply for Budapest.
One of the barriers was planned to be built directly in front of
the so called Danube knee, a very famous touristic attraction and
historic place. The Slovakian government started almost immediately
with the building.
Pic.2: actual dam of Gabcíkovo
Hungary did not force the construction and a huge environmental
protection movement “Duna Kör “ was formed in 1984 in
Budapest to stop the project. It got a big support by the
Population of Hungary. 140.000 people signed a petition against the
project and 1988 they organized, for that time a huge demonstration
with 40.000 participants in front of the Hungarian parliament. This
pressure to the politics and due the ongoing big political change
in the former so called „Eastern bloc“ Hungary stopped
the project and even revegetated some areas where the construction
has started already. May historian are convinced that this
mentioned environmental movment was the basis to the "velevet
revolution" in Hungary, what has lead to the fall of the "iron
wall" between Hungary and Austria.
The former Czechoslovakia and later Slovakia went on with the
building of the water power plant of Gabcíkovo at a different place
and pulled Hungary 1993 and 1997 to the International court and
demanded the fulfilment of the contract of Budapest of 1977.
Hungary started to blame the government of Slovakia to take water
out of the boarder river into to the new built channel of Gabcíkovo
and to destroy the environment nearby. The International court
decided in principle that the contract of 1977 is still valid and
both countries have to discuss how to fulfil it. But the court
mentioned that at that time the environmental impact was not
considered enough too. A new agreement between Slovakia and Hungary
came never in to place and it has still major bad impact to the
relationship between the tow countries.
The barrier to build the man-made channel is a big attraction of
the whole population of Bratislava and you can find there many
possibilities for sport, such as rafting, inline skating, canoeing
and...
Pic.3: sport center of Gabcíkovo in Slovakia
The cache itself is placed nearby the industrial ruin of the
Hungarian part which was not demolished when Hungary stopped the
project. It is one example how missing talks can have major impacts
to the environment. Everyone can make up its one opinion about it,
but please follow the rule of Geocaching, when you write your logs.
I will delete all logs which do not follow the rules.
Pic.4: a part of the industrial ruin at Nagymaros
You can reach the cache only at day time.
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not like something, please write it down. I'll see what will be
possible to do it better. Maybe you have an idea to improve too
:-).
