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The Danube – a river somehow neglected



The Danube, the second-longest European river after the Volga, still bears the traces of the Iron Curtain that divided its waters for half a century. The historical role of the river as a linking chain between the East and the West and a major transport corridor crossing the continent has somehow been neglected in recent years. The two sections of the river developed in rather differing ways and no common strategy for its future was outlined.
United Europe today has started to pay more and more attention to the significance of this water corridor and the EC has drawn up a large-scale strategy for developing the entire Danube region, encompassing territories with a population of some 100 million people. The goal of this initiative is to make better use of the tremendous economic potential of the river. A vital part of these efforts, however, will be the activities for making the waters of the river cleaner, for boosting their biological properties and conserving river's extremely rich water flora and fauna, especially in its lower course. In an attempt to compensate for years of lost time and turn the river into a major transport territory, there is a risk of inflicting a heavy blow on its natural resources.



The World Wildlife Fund is one of the most active global organizations working for the sustainable development of the Danube region. The Bulgarian branch of the WWF has decided to organize a series of photographic exhibitions revealing the scenic beauty of the Danubean banks that have been left somehow off the focus of public attention in recent years.



At the opening of the first exhibition with a venue in Sofia University Saint Kliment Ohridski, Mrs. Vesselina Kavrakova, program director of the WWF in Bulgaria, said:
“Today we brought to you the Danube, the most important river for Bulgaria, but a river we have somehow neglected. We know that people in the past used to settle near rivers, and Danube is perhaps the most important river in Europe in historical terms, uniting the population of 18 separate countries along its course. However, this river should not be regarded as simply a sum of cubic meters of water resources, megawatts of water power, or millions of Euro of revenues, as many people today do. The lower course of the Danube is one of the very few “wild” rivers in Europe where one can still encounter animal and plant species that can be seen nowhere else. Furthermore, the banks of the river are inhabited by people who have preserved centuries-old traditions.”



Environmentalists are deeply worried by some projects intending to carry out digging works in the lower course of the river in order to make it navigable for larger vessels. In their opinion, this will destroy a large part of its exceptionally rich flora and fauna. The Danube delta, a real haven for bird species, is a unique landmark for its still conserved biodiversity on the Old Continent. What environmentalists call for is not to adapt the river to one type of vessel or another, but to adapt ships to the navigability specifics of the Danube. This is also the opinion of 6 photographers from Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, and France who have tried to show the beauty of the river in 40 photographs displayed at an exhibition organized by the WWF. At one of them, Bulgarian photographer Alexander Ivanov has done some aerial photography.



“I thought I have a pretty good idea of the Danube but it turned out to be entirely different from what I expected, Alexander Ivanov explains. I think that we should all start paying more attention to this river. This is a great river that has been an important part of Bulgarian history. Fortunately, its flow cannot be stopped by anyone although some people would really like to crowd it with sluices and lockgates at many places and make it navigable for big ships along its lower course. For the time being, however, they have not been allowed to do this as this depends to a large extent on all of us”, says Alexander Ivanov, one of the photographers whose works are displayed in an exhibition of photos of the Danube just launched in Sofia.

From Novinite

The Danube (pronounced /ˈdænjuːb/ DAN-ewb in English) is Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is notable for being classified as an international waterway.

The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town of Donaueschingen. After that it is known as the Danube and flows southeastward for a distance of some 2850 km (1771 miles), passing through four Central and Eastern European capitals, before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.

Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river flows through or acts as part of the borders of ten countries: Germany (7.5%), Austria (10.3%), Slovakia (5.8%), Hungary (11.7%), Croatia (4.5%), Serbia (10.3%), Bulgaria (5.2%), Moldova (1.6%), Ukraine (3.8%) and Romania (28.9%). (The percentages reflect the proportion of the total Danube basin area.

The Danube was known in Latin as Danubius, Danuvius, Ister, in Ancient Greek as Ίστρος (Istros) . The Dacian/Thracian name was Τάναις/Donaris / Donaris (upper Danube) and Istros (lower Danube).

The name Dānuvius is presumably a loan from Celtic (Gaulish), or possibly Iranic. It is one of a number of river names derived from a Indo-European word *dānu, apparently a term for "
river"
, but possibly also of a primeval cosmic river, and of a river goddess (see Danu (Asura)), perhaps from a root *dā "
to flow/wift, rapid, violent, undisciplined."
Other river names with the same etymology include Don, Donets, Dnieper and Dniestr. Dniepr and Dniestr, from Danapris and Danastius, are from Scythian Iranic *Dānu apara "
posterior river"
and *Dānu nazdya- "
anterior river"
, respectively.

The Ancient Greek Istros was a borrowing from Thracian/Dacian meaning "
strong, swift"
, akin to Sanskrit is.iras "
swift"
.

Since the Norman conquest of England, the English language has used the French word Danube. In the languages of the modern countries through which the river flows, it is:

Croatian: Dunav
Bulgarian: Дунав (transliterated: Dunav)
German: Donau
Hungarian: Duna
Romanian: Dunărea
Serbian: Дунав, Dunav
Slovak: Dunaj
Ukrainian: Дунай (transliterated: Dunai)

From Novinite

Bird awareness Danube rafting completed in four days

A pair of Bulgarian bird enthusiasts crossed the Bulgarian stretch of the Danube River in the second part of January 2011, a period when temperatures can plummet well below -15C.

"
We want to thank all those who believed in us. Everyone can climb their own Everest or raft their Danube, it's all down to motivation,"
Alexnder Pazderski said in Silistra, northeastern Bulgaria, once the Go Wild crew completed their feat.

The adventure started in Vidin, on the northwestern tip of Bulgaria. The 416km crossing took them four days to complete.

The group, consisting of Pazderski and Borislav Naidenov, attempted the feat along the Danube to raise awareness of four endangered bird species in Bulgaria living along the Danube: the Phalacrocorax pygmaeus, Aythya nyroca, Haliaeetus albicilla and the Pelecanus crispus.

I'm not sure the Danube still holds the Romantic image its once had so many years ago I have seen parts of it full of rubbish and I talking the parts that the Bulgarina tourist trade rely on