PREFACE

 

Antecedents

 

On April 19, 1995 the Government of the Slovak Republic and the Government of the Republic of Hungary signed the Agreement concerning certain temporary technical measures and discharges in the Danube and Mosoni branch of the Danube [1] (Appendix A.1). The Agreement prescribes the monitoring of environmental impact of the realised measures, increased discharges into the Danube and Mosoni branch of the Danube, and water supply to the right side river branch system. Activities of the Nominated Monitoring Agents connected with the realisation of the environmental monitoring in the influenced area are described in the Statute[2], signed on May 29, 1995 in Gabčíkovo (Appendix A.2).

The Slovak side on October 23, 1997 through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs informed the Hungarian Party of its readiness to prolong the validity of the Agreement from 19. April 1995 until an agreement on implementation of the ICJ judgement, declared on 25. September 1997 is reached. The Hungarian Party accepted this proposal by resolution of the Government from 17. December 1997.

According to the Agreement the Slovak Party has undertaken to release an annual average discharge of 400 m³.s^-1 into the Danube downstream the Čunovo dam and 43 m³s^-1 into the Mosoni branch of the Danube, depending on hydrological and technical conditions described in the Appendices No. 1 and 2 of the Agreement. The Hungarian Party, according to the Agreement, put the submerged weir, constructed in the common section of the Danube at rkm 1843, into operation in June 1995. This weir enables the water supply of 150 m³.s^-1 into the river branch system in the Hungarian inundation area. The water discharged to the Mosoni branch of the Danube ensures the water supply of the Mosoni Danube and the branches in the flood protected area.

According to the Article 4 of the Agreement the Parties are obliged to mutually exchange and evaluate data obtained by the environmental monitoring on both sides, which are necessary to assess the impacts of the water supply. The technical details of the environmental monitoring on both sides – the determination of the influenced area, the sampling and measuring points, the frequency of measurements, the list of exchanged parameters, the frequency of data exchange, etc. – are described in the Statute (Appendix A.2) and relevant documents.

The observation results and measured data in tabular and graphical forms with short descriptions create the National Annual Reports, prepared by the Parties themselves, according to the Article 3 of the Agreement. This Joint Annual Report was elaborated jointly and is based on the approved and mutually exchanged national reports.

The present report is the sixth Joint Annual Report on the environmental monitoring and gives the evaluation concerning the hydrological year 2000. The evaluation on the Slovak side is based on the data collected by the Slovak Hydro-meteorological Institute, Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Comenius University, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Forest Research Institute, Soil Science and Conservation Research Institute, West Slovakia’s Waterworks and Sewerage Enterprise, Waterworks and Sewerage Enterprise Bratislava, Slovak Water Management Authority, Water Research Institute and Ground Water Consulting Ltd. The data exchange and the evaluation of the monitoring under the frame of the joint monitoring are co-ordinated by the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for the construction and operation of the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project.

The evaluation on the Hungarian side is based on the data collected by the North-Transdanubian Authority for the Environment Protection, North-Transdanubian Water Management Authority, Regional Waterworks Companies, Forest Research Institute, Pannon Agricultural University, Museum of Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Eötvös Lóránd Science University. The data exchange and the evaluation are co-ordinated by the Ministry for the Environment Protection.

 

Goals of the Joint Monitoring

 

The main goal of the Joint Slovak-Hungarian Monitoring is to observe, record and jointly evaluate quantitative and qualitative changes of the surface and ground water and water related environment in connection to the measures and water supply according to the Agreement.

The submerged weir assures increased water level in the Danube and the water supply to the river branch system on the Hungarian side. The evaluation includes the changes in the hydrological regimes of the surface and ground water, the changes in the surface and ground water quality, the changes in the soil moisture and changes in forestry and biota.

The goal of the mutual data exchange is to provide information on monitoring results, development of parameters included in the data exchange, and environmental changes on the influenced area of the respective Parties. The basic condition of data exchange is use of equal or compatible methods of measurements and analysis and the application of agreed interpretation methods.

The final goal of the Joint Annual Report is to submit joint evaluation of the monitoring results and joint recommendations for monitoring improvement and environment protection activities to the respective governments.

 

Joint monitoring activities in 2000

 

The monitoring in the hydrological year 2000 on both sides was carried out according to the Agreement and the Statute. This consists of surface and ground water regimes observations, surface and ground water quality monitoring, measurements of soil moisture, forest monitoring, fauna and flora observations. Comparing to the previous year there were some changes in the monitoring activities in hydrological year 2000.

Two new monitoring objects for the soil moisture observation on the Slovak side were included to the joint evaluation, and two observation point in the Danube old river bed were added into the frame of surface water quality monitoring measured by the Slovak side.

At selected profiles the Parties carried out joint surface water discharge measurements.

The other activities remained unchanged.

 

Fulfilment of the 1999’s Joint Annual Report recommendations

 

1.      The Hungarian Party completed the long-term ground water quality evaluation in its National Annual Report from the environmental monitoring in 2000. The long-term evaluation was supplemented with tabular and graphical documentation.

2.      The Hungarian Party in its National Annual Report from the monitoring in 2000 stated the requirement of replacing some of the forest monitoring areas. However, no concrete proposal has been made.   
The evaluation of the year 2000 did not contain the evaluation of dendrometric measurements of the actual year. In the provided monitoring data repeatedly are missing the dendrometric measurements data of the evaluated year.     
In the evaluation of forest monitoring no results or partial results of aerial photos taken in 1999 was presented.

3.      In the frame of the agreed long term evaluation of selected groups of biological monitoring expert negotiations on the methodology going on presently. The suggested parts of the biological monitoring for long-term evaluation are phytocoenological observations and fish monitoring.