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Bastroe ChannelThe Bastroe Channel (a.k.a. Bastroe Canal, Bystroye or Bystroe Channel, etc.) is a proposed project by Ukraine in the Danube Delta. According to official Ukrainian plans as of 2004, it should be completed in 2008. The intent is to provide a deep-water route from the Danube to the Black Sea under Ukrainian control, in order to reduce their ship transit costs. Ecologists have been raised significant concerns about damage to the Danube Delta ecosystem. http://www.vinatorul.ro/community/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=186 After the apparent failure of diplomatic efforts, the government of Romania, where most of the Danube Delta lies, is reportedly considering building a 20km canal that would absorb the Danube's water upstream of Ukraine's small piece of the river, in order to render the planned Bastroe Channel useless and thereby discourage Ukraine from attempting such a project. The Romanian canal would be designed so that it could be shut at any time, returning the river more or less to its current state. http://www.pressreview.ro/articol.php?a=600&s=2&ss=-1 The Danube Delta has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. The European Union has repeatedly asked Ukraine to halt the project, as has Romania and the United States. The Worldwide Fund for Nature has said the canal threatens the delta's most important wetland, where 70 percent of the world's white pelicans and 50 percent of pygmy cormorants live. The official inauguration of the project was scheduled for Ukrainian Independence Day August 24, 2004 but was postponed until August 26. On August 24, around 140 non-profit organisations and trade unions submitted an open letter at the Ukrainian embassy in Bucharest, Romania saying the project may endanger more than 280 bird species and 45 freshwater fish species living in the delta. "If Ukraine goes ahead with its plan ... the delta will become a fetid swamp," said a statement by one of the unions. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24539357.htm On August 26 Ukraine officially inaugurated the project and the Romanian government announced plans to bring a lawsuit against Ukraine at the Hague-based International Court of Justice, invoking the Ramsar Convention on wetlands. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26420789.htm
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