Budapest and Warsaw make quite different uses of the rivers flowing through their midst
By Wojciech Kosc
One doesn't necessarily need to invoke the Amazon rain forest to make people concerned about the environment, or to mobilise them into protective action. Sometimes it's enough to point to something closer to home. Poland provides one such example. Activists supporting Warsaw's Ja Wisla foundation took action in August against the environmental mayhem created by quads (or all-terrain vehicles) by issuing the following campaign announcement: "If you don't fancy stopping frequently to nail down red 'Nature Reserve' signs, don't come. If you're afraid of criminals, don't come. However, please do come if you think your children should benefit from positive action. The aim of this trip is to limit devastation of the Wyspy Zawadowskie and Wyspy Swiderski nature reserves caused by quads, motorcycles and SUVs. We're going to ride along the border of protected areas and nail down the signs. If we happen to meet motor-sport aficionados, we'll all get out our cameras and take pictures — and we'll call the river police."
This wasn't just another ride in the park for this group of Polish activists, as there is actually quite a lot at stake environmentally speaking, both for the city of Warsaw and its river, the Vistula.
The Danube's bustling Budapest
Over the centuries, many of Central and Eastern Europe's present-day capital cities emerged and developed in relation to favourable river-based locations. Budapest, Prague and Warsaw are some of CEE's most iconic cities, and the rivers which have nurtured them (the Danube, Vltava and Vistula) are responsible for much of their character and vitality. Not all of these cities, however, have similar models of urban and riparian coexistence. One such example is the contrast between Warsaw and Budapest.
Green stretches and clusters of overhanging trees dominate the Danube's riverbanks a mere 15 kilometres both downstream and upstream from Budapest. The trees arching into the water form a green buffer that hides predominantly sandy banks. On warm sunny days, exposed sandy sections of riverbank fill up with sunbathing parents, teenagers fishing and young children wading in the shallows. A multitude of kayakers and canoeists take delight in skimming across the river's surface. But in the city itself the natural banks give way to a stained concrete quayside sloping into the brown water. The Danube bank is one of Budapest's focal areas, and offers several meeting points between distinct quarters of Buda and Pest; but many natural attributes of a river -birds, trees, foliage- are nowhere to be found.
It's not, however, as if the Danube is flowing through a dead zone. Here, flanked by magnificent architecture, including the iconic Parliament building, the river is home to a different kind of life. Citizens and tourists walk, drink and dine along its shores, and take boat cruises past the majestic skyline. The bridges are crammed with pedestrians, cars, trams and bikes, but the water flowing beneath hardly resembles the clean waters of the Natura 2000 site just upstream from the Hungarian capital.
Even so, the sheer number of boathouse clubs, restaurants and hotels docked along the Danube is evidence that the river plays an integral role in Budapest culture. The lack of nature notwithstanding, the river retains a metropolitan sense of majesty that continues to draw locals and foreigners alike to its banks.
The Vistula: 'It's alive'
For years, the mantra of Warsaw's city planners and developers has been for the city to grow with its back turned to the river, and for the Vistula to play a minor role in urban commercial life. Warsaw, in fact, is one of few European capitals to have sections of its home river designated Natura 2000 sites within city limits.
Asked to identify other major cities in Europe where rivers are actually something more than just water flowing through concrete half-pipes, regardless of their historic surroundings, Greenpeace Polska activist Lukasz Supergan is somewhat stumped.
"That would be very difficult, but Paris, Vienna and Bratislava do take each and every advantage of their rivers. The oldest districts are usually located directly by the rivers, plus there are harbours or restaurants on the river banks," Supergan says. "But in their respective cities, the Danube and the Seine are completely regulated rivers, devoid of any environmental qualities. They have been 100-percent harnessed."
Supergan notes, however, that Warsaw is wholly unique in this regard: "The Vistula where it flows through Warsaw is still unharnessed, without concrete. In other words, it's still alive. Things like harbours, pedestrian crossings or bicycle paths aren't going to cause any harm, but attempts to put the river 'in order' in such a way as cities elsewhere in Europe will result in destruction of its natural features. And people won't find it attractive either."
Thanks to the fact that previous municipal authorities proved too weak to impose the city on the river, Warsaw enjoys the advantage of being able to learn from mistakes made elsewhere and to come up with actions that could keep the river relatively unspoilt, making the city a major attraction for both locals and tourists.
A more detailed look at Warsaw's current plans to catch up with its Hungarian counterpart in terms of how to integrate the city and the river, however, reveals a certain break with ideas shared by Supergan and the Ja Wisla foundation. According to the latest plans, Warsaw wants the left bank, already a place where people go to walk or ride bicycles, to become a haven for cultural and recreational activities. The other bank, wilder and home to most of the Vistula's wildlife, will continue to be green, though the idea is to widen the river and create islands to serve as bird sanctuaries.
While the plan is ostensibly very environment-friendly, greens would rather see the city take a more grass-roots approach and first crack down on the construction companies carrying out illegal sand-digging from the river bed. The activists would also like to remove tons of rubble and garbage piling up along the Vistula's banks. Lastly, they claim, construction of sewage treatment infrastructure should be started.
Green and clean
In July, Greenpeace received some declarative support for its recent 'The River Isn't Sewage' campaign from Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz.
"I proposed that Warsaw should finally turn towards the river, and a clean river at that," the mayor said during Greenpeace's campaign inauguration," the mayor said.
In terms of actual developments, however, it's hard to pass out high marks to Warsaw City Hall and Warsaw Province authorities, as there is little evidence of protective action on the Vistula's behalf. Warsaw is one of very few European capitals that directly river-dumps as much as 50 percent of its waste, and which is untreated. Volume-wise, this amounts to 50 million cubic metres. Interestingly, the corresponding percentage figure for Budapest, with its ultimately 'harnessed' Danube, is the same.
The good news is that, following the entry of Hungary and Poland into the European Union, Budapest and Warsaw have received major financial help that is being spent on developing sewage treatment plants. A new treatment plant under construction in south Budapest will likely treat 90 percent of municipal sewage by 2010. Also, within the same time frame, Warsaw City Hall has the financing to expand and modernise the city's sewage treatment infrastructure.
Actually, City Hall had little choice. In order to conform to EU regulations, Poland must upgrade all of its rivers to at least class-II status.
While the EU can impose certain overall regulations on water management affecting city sections of rivers in CEE, it may not dictate how to expand over and along rivers. With regard to Budapest, the case is rather hopeless, as it's hard to imagine anyone willing to take on the costs of giving the downtown section of the Danube more of a natural makeover. Warsaw, however, is in a good starting position to make the Vistula equal parts 'hustle and bustle' and a birdwatchers' paradise.
