The current International Danube Expedition (JDS3) is the world's largest river research expedition in 2013, the United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation, stated Executive Secretary of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River Ivan Zavadsky at a press conference in Budapest.
The Expedition arrived in Budapest on Monday. The ships of the JDS3 would travel a total of 2400 kilometres through 10 countries between 13 August and 26 September moving downriver all the way to the Danube delta, Executive Secretary Zavadsky explained. The work of the JDS3 is coordinated by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube. For example, an international research team of scientists is taking water samples, which it then tests and studies, processing the acquired information on board.
The International Danube Expedition is organised every six years, Mr. Zavadsky added. The current research facilitates international cooperation between the 14 countries with the most significant Danube water catchment areas and the European Commission.
In reply to a question from Hungarian news agency MTI, the Executive Secretary said that the exact budget of the Expedition is at yet unknown, but would probably be in the region of some 2.5 million euros, the majority of which would be provided in kind.
Government Commissioner Balázs Medgyesy said that the current expedition, which was preceded by others in 2001 and 2007, is a priority project of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. The research results are also of special importance for the states of the region, including Hungary, with reference to, among others, the development of water catchment management plans and drought protection.
Active participation in the EU Strategy for the Danube Region is also important to Hungary because 112 million EU citizens live in the region and it is important that they all have access to clean drinking water. Several Hungarian researchers and scientists are active participants of the current Expedition.
The Ministry of Rural Development's Deputy State Secretary for Water Péter Kovács stressed that as a downstream nation, meaning a country with water catchment areas outside its borders, international cooperation is of extreme importance to Hungary not just with regard to border water catchment areas but also in relation to the region, within the whole area of the Danube basin.
Béla Csányi, the Expedition's scientific director spoke about the fact that information on the Danube's wildlife, its environment and possible dangers such as pollution, can best be gained through research of this kind. This is one of the reasons why the Expedition is especially interested in the river's deepwater wildlife and fish.
(MTI)
