09 Oct
2006 - Vienna/Bucharest/Sofia – Continuing confusion
regarding the source and composition of an oil
spill from a Serbian oil terminal has underlined
problems with early warning and reporting systems
for the Danube River that could be crucial in
limiting impacts of larger accidents in future.
Effective early warning is particularly
important as the threat of such events is likely
to increase in the future with the development
of shipping and industrial facilities along the
Lower Danube.
The spill on Monday, 2 October,
caused by a broken pipeline from an oil refinery
on the Danube River in Prahovo, Serbia, only confirmed
the spill two days after the fact. Since then,
Serbian Minister of Investments Velimir Ilici
has declared that there is still no clear evidence
that Prahovo was in fact the source of the spill.
Romanian authorities reacted
promptly, identifying the spill at Gruia, just
opposite Prahovo. Efforts by the Romanian and
Bulgarian authorities to contain the spill were
initially hampered by lack of information regarding
the source and especially the composition of the
slick.
“We were fortunate that this
was a relatively small oil spill, but the next
one could be much more serious," said Christine
Bratrich, Head of Freshwater for the WWF Danube-Carpathian
Programme.
"It is essential that Danube
countries report accidents to the early warning
system promptly so that timely action can be taken,
especially as the risk of such accidents is increasing
as a result of development of shipping and infrastructure
along the Lower Danube.”
WWF calls on Danube river basin
countries to respect the protocols and information
management rules for this warning system, and
to immediately inform downstream countries so
they can take proper action. It also calls on
the International Commission for the Protection
of the Danube River (ICPDR), which oversees the
Danube Early Warning System, to examine reporting
in light of the recent accident and to suggest
measures to ensure its functioning in future.
The Accident Emergency Warning
System (AEWS) of the Danube River Basin is activated
whenever there is a risk of transboundary water
pollution, or threshold danger levels of certain
hazardous substances are exceeded. The AEWS sends
out international warning messages to countries
downstream to help the authorities put environmental
protection and public safety measures into action.
The spill had been largely removed,
but based on data supplied by Romanian Waters,
oil concentrations remain at Turnu Magurele on
the Romanian side of the river within the maximum
admissible levels for such substances.
Romania and Bulgaria have called
on Serbia to pay damages. But the “polluters pay
principle” cannot be applied until the source
of pollution is clearly identified.
END NOTES:
• The last 1,000km of the Danube
are among the last free-flowing stretches of river
in Europe, including islands with remnants of
floodplain forests and many well-preserved wetlands.
The Danube Delta is not only one of Europe’s greatest
natural treasures, but also the home of 29 million
people who live and are dependent on the Lower
Danube river basin.
• In the participating countries
of the Accident Emergency Warning System (AEWS)
of the Danube River Basin, so-called Principal
International Alert Centres (PIACs) have been
established. The main function of these centres
is to propagate the warning message at the international
level. Between May 1997 and September 2003, the
system registered 35 accidents. Almost half the
incidents involved oil pollution, and in 12 cases
the origins of the pollution were identified.
For more information, see: http://www.icpdr.org/icpdr-pages/aews.htm.
• The EU is promoting significant
development of shipping on the Danube, which it
sees as one of the central transportation routes
in Europe. As “Transport Corridor No. 7”, the
river is one of the priority projects for the
EU’s Trans-European Networks for Transport. In
addition to shipping, industrial facilities are
being built along the Danube, including a new
oil terminal along the riverbank at Giurgiulesti
in Moldova. The terminal has been heavily criticised
for its location near the globally important Danube
Delta Biosphere Reserve.
Dr Christine Bratrich, Freshwater
Teamleader
