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The “years of undesirable developments” are the reason for a share of only 17 percent of the entire water network, which can flow freely without hindrance. More than 5,200 hydroelectric plants in Austria are responsible for regulations and blockages, and hundreds more are planned, including in ecologically sensitive areas, warned Bettina Urbanek, a water expert at WWF. Therefore, a “concrete rescue plan” for the last intact rivers must come from politics.
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Endangered fish barely protected
Boku’s analysis of the “designation of valuable waterways in Austria and their protection status” included 32,267 kilometers of river, with about 11,500 kilometers a third being classified as “particularly worthy of protection”. In reality, however, withdrawal areas for endangered species were poorly protected or not protected against further obstructions. Only one percent is accompanied by ecologically significant intact meadows.
In the third part of the river banks, particularly worthy of protection, only 24 percent were effectively protected against further obstruction of hydroelectric power strictly in accordance with nature conservation or the water law, the director of the Sigrid Scheikl’s project was cited by Boku. The dignity of protection arose due to its outstanding importance for endangered species, a very good condition or the presence of intact landscapes of flood plains or free flow routes. The prospect was no better for river dwellers: “Of the 58 native fish species that can still be found in running waters, 34 are endangered, highly endangered, or even threatened with extinction,” Scheikl said.
There are no minimum ecological standards.
Taking the endangered grayling as an example, only 330 kilometers remained for this species where populations are in good condition, 50 kilometers of which were strictly protected from further obstruction. Urbanek warned of this obstruction as part of the energy transition, which should be compatible with nature. So far, however, eight out of ten plants have not met minimum ecological standards, WWF said.
The plans for the power plant in Upper Mur were mentioned as negative, which would threaten one of the latest Huchen occurrences. Seven power plants in the Isel catchment area protected by Natura 2000 in East Tyrol, which threaten the last original stocks of the strictly protected German Tamarisk, as well as the Tumpen-Habichen power plant, whose construction threatens the Ötztaler Ache ecosystem of free flow, which the state of Tirol classifies as unique. List of. The starting point for the analysis, which was completed in March of this year, was the current federal water supply network (NGP 2015, BMNT, as of March 22, 2016).
(Source: APA)
