Bystroye Channel

The Bystroye Channel (also known as Bastroe Canal, Bâstroe or Bystroe Channel, etc.) was a project proposed by Ukraine in the Danube Delta. According to official Ukrainian plans, it was to be completed in 2008. The intent was to provide a deep-water route from the Danube to the Black Sea under Ukrainian control, in order to reduce their ship transit costs. Ecologists have raised significant concerns about damage to the Danube Delta ecosystem. [ro icon "Canalul Bastroe - o posibila catastrofa ecologica?" ("The Bastroe Channel: a possible ecological catastrophe?", originally posted June 29, 2004 on www.vinatorul.ro [http://web.archive.org/web/20041101192626/http://www.vinatorul.ro/community/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=186 available as an archive] , archived November 1, 2004 on the Internet Archive.] After the apparent failure of diplomatic efforts, the government of Romania, where most of the Danube Delta lies, is reportedly considering building a 20 km canal that would absorb the Danube's water upstream of Ukraine's small piece of the river, in order to render the planned Bastroe Channel useless and thereby discourage Ukraine from attempting such a project. The Romanian canal would be designed so that it could be shut at any time, returning the river more or less to its current state. [ [http://www.pressreview.ro/articol.php?a=600&s=2&ss=-1 Romania to Build Counter-Canal in Danube’s Delta] ]

The Danube Delta has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. The European Union has repeatedly asked Ukraine to halt the project, as has Romania and the United States. The Worldwide Fund for Nature has said the canal threatens the delta's most important wetland, where 70 percent of the world's white pelicans and 50 percent of pygmy cormorants live.

The official inauguration of the project was scheduled for Ukrainian Independence Day August 24, 2004 but was postponed until August 26. On August 24, around 140 non-profit organisations and trade unions submitted an open letter at the Ukrainian embassy in Bucharest, Romania saying the project may endanger more than 280 bird species and 45 freshwater fish species living in the delta. "If Ukraine goes ahead with its plan ... the delta will become a fetid swamp," said a statement by one of the unions. On August 26 Ukraine officially inaugurated the project and the Romanian government announced plans to bring a lawsuit against Ukraine at the Hague-based International Court of Justice, invoking the Ramsar Convention on wetlands.

In May 2005, parties of the Aarhus Convention agreed on political sanctions against Ukraine. Ukraine announced the temporary halt of the project in June, 2005.In February 2006 "The Conference for the Sustainable Development of the Danube Delta" was held in Odessa with participation of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine and involved international organizations, however work on the channel is still planned.

References

External links

* [http://assets.panda.org/downloads/bystroyecanalqa.pdf The Bystroye Canal in the Ukrainian Danube Delta – Questions and Answers] (PDF) - criticism by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

* [http://www.bystroe.3x.ro - www.bystroe.3x.ro] - The only website that presents the whole issue from the early beginnings until the present with tons of maps, pictures, articles, ideas, plans and alternative proposals