Balkans Awash As Danube Hits 100-year Flood Level
Sun Herald
Sunday April 16, 2006
THE Danube rose to its highest level in more than a century yesterday, but a breached dam in Romania eased pressure downstream on towns and villages struggling to hold back the floods.
Rivers fed by heavy rain and melting snow crept higher across the Balkans for the fourth day, driving people from their homes and swamping low-lying farmland and ports.Waters rose to an 111-year high in the Romanian town of Bazias, near its border with Serbia, flooding about 5000 hectares of farmland on the northern bank. The river also flooded the small port of Bechet, while soldiers and civil defence workers scrambled to reinforce dikes and build sandbag barriers on both sides of the river. The Romanian Government started controlled flooding to divert water away from low-lying villages and was helped by the collapse of a dam in the south-west, which flooded farmland. It plans to submerge about 90,000 hectares of fertile land on a 400-kilometre stretch on the Danube's northern bank, a major area for wheat and maize farming. The region is still recovering from devastating floods last summer, which killed scores of people.This time the floods have submerged hundreds of houses across the Balkans, displacing thousands of people and leaving tens of thousands more at risk. The Danube is expected to continue rising this week, but on the Bulgarian side water levels stabilised yesterday.
© 2006 Sun Herald