PREFACE

 

Antecedents

 

On April 19, 1995 Governments of the Slovak Republic and the Republic of Hungary signed an 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 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 environmental monitoring in the influenced area are described in the Statute[2], signed on May 29, 1995 in Gabčíkovo (Appendix A.2).

The Slovak Republic on October 23, 1997 through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs informed the Republic of Hungary of its readiness to prolong the validity of the Agreement from April 19, 1995 until an agreement on implementation of the ICJ judgement, declared on September 25, 1997, is reached. The Republic of Hungary accepted this proposal by governmental resolution from December 17, 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 water supply into the river branches in the Hungarian inundation area up to 250 m³.s^-1. The water discharged to the Mosoni branch of the Danube ensures the water supply of the Mosoni Danube and 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 impacts of the water supply. Technical details of the environmental monitoring on both sides – the determination of 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.

Observation results and measured data in tabular and graphical forms together with their evaluation 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 seventh Joint Annual Report on the environmental monitoring and gives an evaluation concerning the hydrological year 2001. 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 in accordance to the Agreement is to observe, record and jointly evaluate quantitative and qualitative changes of surface and ground water bodies and water related natural environment in connection to the realised measures and applied water supply.

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

The goal of mutual data exchange is to provide information on monitoring results, on progress 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 monitoring results and joint recommendations for monitoring improvement and environment protection activities to the respective governments.

 

Joint monitoring activities in the year 2001

 

Monitoring activities in the hydrological year 2001 were carried out in accordance to the Agreement and the Statute on both sides. These consist of surface and ground water regime observations, surface and ground water quality monitoring, measurements of soil moisture content, forest monitoring, fauna and flora observations. Comparing to the previous year there were some changes in observation object composition.

Field documentation was carried out in the frame of ground water level monitoring on both Hungarian and Slovak sides.

In the frame of long-term evaluation of biological monitoring several meeting have been held. The experts agreed in basic methodology for long-term evaluation of phytocoenological data, however no methodology was agreed for fish and zoo- and phytoplankton long-term evaluation till now.

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

The other activities remained unchanged.

 

Fulfilment of recommendations in the Joint Annual Report 2000

 

1.      During the year 2001 field documentation of new ground water level observation objects was carried out on both Slovak and Hungarian side. New observation objects will replace monitoring points left out from the regular observation network. New wells were measured and documented and automatically included into the data exchange to compensate wells, which were left out.

2.      The experts studied the EU 2000/60 Water Framework Directive (WFD) in water policy from October 23, 2000. In general it can be stated that national implementation has started and the legal harmonization is going on in the respective countries. Actually a lot of activities on implementation of the WFD are in progress within the EU (guidelines, standards, etc.) and the experts of both Parties agreed that the further negotiation would continue after the guidelines will be finalized. Further negotiation will concern the review of the existing water quality monitoring system and its harmonization with the new legislation.

3.      The Hungarian Party proposed to include relevant monitoring sites into the frame of surface water quality monitoring. The proposed existing and observed monitoring sites are situated in the Danube main riverbed on the stretch between Rajka and Sap (rkm 1848-1811).

4.      During the year 2001 did not succeeded to organize field trip to observe the forest monitoring areas on the Hungarian side. For this reason experts of both sides were not able to choose monitoring areas suitable for purposes of Joint Monitoring. The field trips were postponed to the first half of the year 2002 and recently they were carried out. Consequently the Parties will prepare a new list of observed areas, proposed for the joint forest monitoring.

5.      During the year 2001 experts for biological monitoring of selected observed groups held meetings several times. During the meetings some basic principles of the long-term evaluation of agreed groups of biological monitoring have been discussed. Three different groups of biological communities, phytocoenology, fishes and phyto- and zooplankton, have been chosen for elaboration of joint methodology for long-term evaluation. Some progress in phytocoenology has been reached, however more consultancies have to be carried out to agree on ecological values of the respective plant species. The proposed methodology for long-term evaluation will be first applied on sample data on chosen area.