Austria and Hungary fight nature to stop lake vanishing
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Loading... - Fiona Cullen
- 20 Sep 2022
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Kitesurfers and windsurfers dot picturesque Lake Neusiedl on the Austrian-Hungarian border –- but the water is so low some get stuck in the mud.
The salt lake and its marshes—the largest of its kind in Europe and a UNESCO world heritage site—could soon run completely dry, and locals are worried.
The lake, only an hour from Vienna, last dried up in the 1860s yet was naturally replenished by rainwater.
But back then it wasn't drawing millions of tourists, nor was the area producing 120,000 tons of crops a year.
"Letting the lake and the region run dry is not an option," provincial councillor Heinrich Dorner told AFP.
To avert what he sees as an economic disaster, Dorner is banking of a series of major projects, the biggest being a canal to bring fresh water from the Danube river in Hungary.
But the plans have run into opposition from environmentalists, who fear any interference could accelerate the demise of the lake, the westernmost outpost of the great Eurasian Steppe.
'Natural cycle'
Hungary has tasked a company owned by one of its richest men, Lorinc Meszaros, with building the canal, though work has not yet started, according to a municipal official.
Meszaros, who is close to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is already in charge of a vast real estate project on the Hungarian side of the lake, including the construction of a marina, sports complex and a hotel. Read More...
