During this exam period, let’s begin with a geography lesson. "The Danube is Europe’s second longest river after the Volga (in Russia)", teaches wikipedia. What I find interesting is that it is also the most international river in the world : the Danube basin is composed by 19 countries. As you can see on the map below, it crosses or goes along 10 countries, from southern Germany to the Black Sea, with its delta in south-east of Romania, near Galati where I stayed.

But now, here is something that neither wikipedia nor geography lessons teach us. The four main threats to the Danube’s environment and its tributaries are :
 fertilizers and pesticides used by intensive agriculture ;
 phosphate and nitrate from detergents, mostly in downstream countries (Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania...) ;
 untreated waste waters (mostly domestic) ;
 heavy metal contamination from the industrial activities (such as mining) in downstream countries : mercury, lead, aluminium...

In 2007, the European Commission drew the attention on this problem of detergents and some countries made great efforts. Phosphate-free detergents are now available in Germany or Austria but not in downstream countries. Phosphate and nitrate affect the oxygen in the water and generates alga growth. Even german or austrian waste water treatment plants don’t remove phosphate and nitrate, and many countries of the basin are short of such treatment plants.

Industries are much more compelled than cities to have good waste water treatments because, acoording to Petruta, it’s a "better organised society" (for example, they need licencies to develop their activities). There is a lack of administrative reforms and the bureaucracies are a poison for projects of protection of Danube’s environment. Countries like Romania are very vulnerable to the political framework.

What led the environmental programs for the Danube river in the past 20 years was the bad quality of the Black Sea water. The Danube is the greatest tributary to the Black Sea and the greatest polluter of it. In 1994, the 19 countries of the basin signed the Danube River Protection Convention in Sofia. The ICPDR (International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River) was then created. Since then, it became a very active body for the protection of the Danube river.

The unique situation of Romania

Romania is very vulnerable to environmental problems in the Danube because the country owns 875km of the downstream Danube river and has the largest watersheds (so agriculture, industries and lack of waste water treatment plants are dangers for drinking waters of romanian people).

Romania also has a singular position towards the Danube because the delta is there (the majority of it, a small part belongs to Ukraine). And, as says Petruta, "everything done in the Danube affects the delta." The delta is the greatest bareer to filter the pollution that goes into the Black Sea from the Danube. But all the contamination of the Danube river affects the capacity of the delta to filter and deposit the contaminants. The pollution also generates organic contamination of the fish stocks.

See you soon, Be green, Ben