The Gabcikovo waterworks project on the Danube River has been serving its purpose in the field of environmental and flood control, and navigation, and power supplies for the past fifteen years of its operation, said the head of the Environment Ministry's water and power resources section, Marian Supek, at a news conference on Thursday. Existing problems relate to the unfinished part downstream from Gabcikovo and these concern navigation, as well as ecological measures.
During its fifteen years of operation, the hydropower plant, which is part of the waterworks, has generated 33 terawatt hours (TWh) of electric energy, and which even amounted to 34.5 TWh of electrical energy together with associated smaller hydropower stations. "Revenues from electricity sales are divided among Enel and water-management company Vodohospodarska Vystavba at a 35:65 ratio," said the director general of Vodohospodarska Vystavba, Roman Straka. During its operation more than 160,000 ships have passed through its locks. The waterworks simultaneously ensure smooth all-year-round navigation. Mr. Straka further stated that the first reconstruction of the left lock chamber of the waterworks started last year and was completed this August. New guarantees have been agreed upon with suppliers of works for the next five-year period.
Slovakia started building the Gabcikovo waterworks, originally planned and built as part of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros project, in line with an intergovernmental agreement from 1977 with Hungary. In 1989, when Slovakia's part of the waterworks was 90 percent complete, Hungary at first suspended works and subsequently tried to withdraw from the agreement in 1992. Then Czechoslovakia, striving to save the investment and avoid damages, adopted a substitute solution called C Variant, and put the waterworks into operation on Slovak territory. Hungary's withdrawal from the contract is subject to a several year-long trial between Slovakia and Hungary, in which the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued its first verdict in 1997, which has yet to be fully implemented.
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