It was while travelling down the Danube River in 1867 that Austrian musician Johann Strauss the Younger, known as the “Waltz King” wrote one of his most famous works, By the Beautiful Blue Danube, which went on to become a popular lullaby to generations of children. The river has since vividly changed its colour and composition.
Whatever may be said about the Danube, the words dull and listless do not feature among them. As an example, in April 2006, its water volume doubled, spilling over into much of the surrounding areas.
In Vidin, water levels had reached a record-breaking 9.73m on the 19th, inundating the industrial district and forcing more than 300 people to evacuate to a tent city 20km further inland. Downstream in the port city of Lom, floodwaters threatened the homes of 6000 people. And in Nikopol, 57 buildings as well as the main road to Pleven, about 40km to the south-west, were partially submerged. Residents here and in rural communities took refuge in schools and hospitals on higher ground, sometimes bringing along their poultry and livestock, evoking scenes from Noah’s Ark.
Indeed on hitherto dry streets, boats and dinghies normally docked at river quays soon took over as the new mode of transport, as 460 soldiers joined thousands of civil defence workers and volunteers throughout the affected areas in rescuing civilians, constructing emergency dykes and salvaging what they could.
Natalia Robeva, whose apartment block was about 250m from the riverbank in Rousse, said she felt both overawed by the Danube’s sudden expansion and breadth (reaching nine metres, exceeding its previous high of 8.88m in 1970), and a sense of foreboding. “Consciously I knew that, situated on high enough ground, we were well out of harm’s way,” she said. Other structures nearer to the river’s edge were not so lucky.
This was the worst flooding in Bulgaria since spring 2005, when, according to Georgi Georgiev, executive director of the Danube River Exploration and Maintenance Agency in Rousse, snowfall in the Alps lasting right up to April began melting, coupled with three months of extensive rains in northern and central Europe, causing many rivers to overflow, particularly the Elbe, Danube and its tributaries, the Sava and Tisza.
But before the affected areas had a chance to make a complete recovery, further floods hit in August 2005, normally a dry month. Although these did not cause as widespread damage, much of that year’s crops were ruined, causing an increase in the price of fruit and vegetables.
In total at least 50 000 hectares of farmland, 400 buildings and 1000 homes were flooded in more than 20 communities along the Danube. And this was just in Bulgaria.
The upper reaches of the Danube have suffered as well, particularly in August 2002, when a week of torrential rains saw the most extensive flooding there in 107 years, ravaging much of the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Croatia. Thousands of people were dispossessed, with damages running into billions of euro.
Of special note were the varying degrees of catastrophes in built-up areas. Much of Dresden and Prague, for instance, came under water, with many historical buildings and artworks waterlogged. Critics claimed that the severity of the deluge could have been mitigated, if not avoided, had the reservoirs in the upper part of the Vltava been properly managed. Vienna by contrast, despite a record water level, suffered virtually no destruction, credit given to its efficient sluice and reservoir systems.
As a precautionary measure, many levees had been constructed in vulnerable areas along the Danube’s bank. However, as Georgiev pointed out, these were not all built with record-level nine-metre-plus surges in mind, given the sheer scale of work and resources that it would have entailed. In addition, over time, they have become stressed from water pressure, seepage, dampening, freezing and thawing, all aggravated by periodic floods, when outflows can reach 15 800 cubic metres a second.
The emergency action plan in Rousse include continuous operation of pumping stations and piling sandbags. But defence crews as well as residents can be caught off guard and overwhelmed. At one point in mid-April 2006, the water level had risen by more than 150cm in just 24 hours to more than 800cm. And in an extreme case, Romanian authorities opened floodgates to inundate thousands of hectares of idle agricultural lands, diverting water from and thus giving a reprieve to areas of human habitation in low-lying areas. They were also aided by the breaching of a dam. By mid-May, the floods had finally receded. Now the clean up.
In order to better handle flooding, Danube countries in December 2004 had signed on to the Action Programme for Sustainable Flood Protection. Key elements of this include providing more leeway when rivers swell by expanding water discharge zones, the establishment of an international flood warning system and more integrated co-operation among different countries, regions and municipalities.
And the forecast for spring 2007? Geogiev says: “The Danube River’s level will be lower than normal, due to the unusually mild winter and below normal snowfall in the Alps and Carpathian mountain range.”
This raises the spectre of river banks exposed to foul-smelling mud, as happened from April to November 2003, and October 9 1992 when the Danube reached -55cm in Rousse, its lowest level since 1840.
Scientists believe this came about from greater anticyclone weather patterns in Germany, causing above-average temperatures and evapotranspiration, and below-average rainfall for 10 months throughout the Danube Basin. Moreover increasing amounts of water were siphoned off for domestic and commercial purposes.
Daniel Nedyalkov, a Rousse native and general director of the Budapest-based Danube Commission, which oversees navigation on the river, said in an interview with Christian Science Monitor in 2003 that “the great Danube had desiccated into a little river”, with some parts only 1.3m deep.
As a consequence, hundreds of barges became stranded, unable to pass through shallow stretches. Losses to Bulgaria’s ports and state shipping company amounted to $600 000 in August 2003 alone.
The Cernavoda nuclear power plant in Romania, which draws its cooling water from the river, was forced to shut down for nearly a month, and in early September, locals saw Kurdish and Sri Lankan-looking men wading across its breadth. The drop in level had also exposed unexploded ordinances and old, sunken ships.
Further highlighting the river’s capricious nature, an unusually cold January to mid February in 2005 saw 80 per cent of the Danube’s surface froze, while February 2006 and 2004 saw 75 per cent, and 70 per cent, respectively.
This represents the upper ranges of the normally 40 per cent to 75 per cent ice cover according to Dr Vassil Doikov, a hydrologist, though similar big chills occurred from December to March in 1984/85, and January to February 1986; 1905 and 1902 when the entire surface froze. “We could walk across the Danube from Silistra to Romania,” recalls Nedka Dimitrova (44). This past winter however, the waters were largely ice-free.
With regards the Danube’s long-term trends, Nedyalkov, who had previously captained vessels along its length for 20 years, was succinct. “What can I say? It’s in God’s hands.”
