Western Balkans Environment Programe

A "Lighthouse Project" to clean-up the worst polluted waterway in Europe

The Danube-Tisza-Danube Canal, or the Grand Backa Canal, was built in the 18 century, partly for transport and water supply, but also with the purpose of draining the wet and fertile soils of the Backa district of Vojvodina.The canal did the job and paved the way for development of large scale agriculture and the entire area between Crvenka and Vrbas was heavily industrialized in the 20th century, with small towns springing up along its banks.

A victim of its own success, however, the canal today has become a "death dumpsite", as the locals call it, because of the well-grounded speculations about its impact on human health in the area around the towns of Crvenka, Kula, Vrbas and Srbobran. Heavily polluted by unprocessed industrial and communal wastewaters, the canal today is a lifeless stream of poisons, including heavy metals, which only serves to transport pollutants into Tisza and Danube rivers. The scale of the problem is best illustrated by the fact that scientists have traced Nitrogen and Phosphorus from the Backa canal as far as the Black Sea, which illustrates its cross-border dimension and impact upon the larger Danube catchment area. 

The canal is no longer able to "deal" with the amount of waste produced by sugar beet processing factories, pig farms, slaughterhouses, edible-oil factories, metal processing factories, and other polluters such as smaller industrial facilities and untreated sewage from the towns on its banks. In its worst stretch around the town of Vrbas the canal is practically filled with industrial sludge, with the depth of only 30cm of water easing over it. It has been a direct health hazard for an estimated 100.000 people living in its vicinity, some of which also have to cope with the stench of the canal that makes living in its proximity particularly difficult in warm weather.

In other words, the canal is as "hot" as environmental hot spots get, which is also part of the reason for its remediation being referred to by experts as a potential "lighthouse" project for other hot spots around the globe. The project owes this qualification to the fact that it brings together more than a dozen partners from all levels of government, national, provincial and local government; and from various sectors: public, private, civil society, as well as UNDP, which supports the project through a regional, Dutch-funded environmental hot-spot remediation programme.

Close cooperation of at least two municipalities (Vrbas and Kula) and authorities from the level of Province of Vojvodina and from the national government level was needed to create an enabling environment for remediation activities. In a context of frequent elections at all levels resulting in opposing political parties occupying power at different levels of governance, creation of this enabling framework was a difficult task.

The municipality of Vrbas, most directly affected by the pollution in the canal, successfully advocated for a broader recognition of the problem. In appreciation of the call for coordinated action, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Serbia and the Authorities of the Province of Vojvodina managed to gather all the stakeholders involved in the Task Force for Remediation of Veliki Backi Canal, which today serves as a cross-party platform for resolving an issue which cuts across the political divide.  

Before the clean-up can start, the imperative is to stop further pollution so as to ensure the sustainability of the entire project. The first phase of the project, therefore, includes construction of new waste water collection network for both communal and industrial waste waters. This is the focus of the Serbian component of the UNDP regional "hot spot" remediation program, which will enable the completion of the missing 6 km stretch of main waste water collector in the municipalities of Vrbas and Kula.

In addition to the completion of the waste water collection system, Phase 1 of the project also includes new pre-treatment facilities being installed by key industries - pollutants themselves. In phase 2, a new Central Waste Water Treatment Plant will be constructed, followed by the excavation and treatment of the existing sludge in the canal in phase 3.

The success of UNDP's contribution to this "lighthouse" partnership, will pave the way for phases 2 and 3 by ensuring that waste water is collected for processing before it can exacerbate the pollution of the canal. The completion of the entire project will remove an immediate threat to public health especially for the residents of Vrbas, whose houses are located on the banks of the canal, and turn the canal into a valuable development resource for the future by providing both irrigation and drainage to the plains of Backa, as well as an invaluable navigation route for both commerce and tourism.