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A massive engineering feat to provide dams and hydro-electricity, begun a decade before in the communist era, is now being questioned by scientists and the ordinary people of Hungary, who were never consulted when the project got underway.
Curator’s notes
This is a very powerful story, well told by reporter Simon Nasht. Nasht lived in Hungary for many years after leaving the ABC where he had trained as a journalist. It’s a classic story that explains both the benefits and the disadvantages that technology can bring to a region. The Danube River is the lifeblood of several countries in western and central Europe, and these radical changes to its flow could be devastating for the flora and fauna of the region. At a time when the West was beginning to seriously question such environment changing hydro-electric projects, the communist regimes of Hungary and Czechoslovakia were embarking on a huge program to change the course of the Danube forever, with Western money from Austrian banks.
