Újraírt tér-képek 2.
Redrawn Spaces and Maps II.

The Gabčíkovo Waterworks and the "New Danube" from the Point of View of the Locals

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines, from the perspective of the local inhabitants, the consequences of the landscape transformation associated with the construction of the Gabčíkovo hydroelectric power plant and with the diversion of the Danube River. There was embedded a static water reservoir and a drainage unit of a rigid shape into the constantly changing, mosaic-like landscape of the former delta of the river on the Rye Island. Its story is about the headway of the central power and of the control over the local worlds. The reservoir and the outlet channel rise as a kind of boundary across the landscape, differentiating the adjacent municipalities according to what actually separates whom from something on its one side or the other. The tear has been suffered not only in the physical sense but the river´s shape has also torn in two: in the Old Danube and the New Danube. In consequence of artificial interventions, raptures emerged in the natural environment too, the formerly coherent, interconnected habitats have separated from each other, water dynamics has changed, and it brought profound consequences. This study describes the change of landscape and nature, based on observations of the local inhabitants.

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