Three barriers, Upper Tisza catchment, Ukraine

Introduction

The Tisza is one of the main tributaries of the Danube River and crosses four country boundaries. The Tisza headwaters are critical for millions of EU/non-EU countries and thousands of Ukrainian citizens for drinking and agriculture. It is home to many of the UNESCO Heritage Virgin Beech forest clusters, biosphere reserves, national parks, Natura 2000 sites, Emerald sites, and a wide variety of critical wildlife from several European countries. The river is essential for drought areas of the Hungarian lowlands, especially during summer hits. Climate change caused the high water table on rivers to shift to winter/late autumn precipitation. The summer got much drier, and winter/late autumn got much wetter. That stimulates the flash floods, causing extensive damage. The high water table on rivers with dams forces the water flow into neighbouring areas, roads, and bridges, causing destruction and erosion. 

Project context and opportunity

Often, dams provide substantial economic benefits to society, including hydropower, irrigation, navigation, flood control, domestic and industrial water supply, and recreation for many areas. But these benefits often come at a price, including environmental and recreational impacts and dam maintenance and repair costs. Our identified three dams do not even provide any of these benefits. For a maximum of 80 years ago, they played an essential role in transporting wood with water downstream. Since it was not used anymore, it lost any functional need. Furthermore, it eroded neighbouring habitats and destroyed roads and bridges, stimulating the building of new protection dams. Protecting road safety is essential as dams can broadly support flash floods and destroy infrastructure. The obvious economic benefits of dam removal include eliminating flood hazards and supporting additional amenities. Comparing the long- and short-term costs is critical to determine these dam removals’ economic costs and benefits.  

Project aims

The detailed project goals are

1. Development of Preliminary Design for dam removal, which includes collecting of all available data (including archives), developing preliminary design plans for removal of dam structures, sediment management and riparian habitats restoration;
2. Discussion of the Preliminary Design of the dam removal during the CBR Scientific-Research Council meeting and Development of the Final version; presentation of the Preliminary Design of the removals and habitats restoration; development of Final Design of the Dam removal and habitats restoration (sediment management, infrastructure protection, channel restoration, and other issues identified during the preliminary design phase);
3. Field Dam Removal and Restoration of the riparian zone, which consists of hiring a contractor by procurement and removing the dam structures; hiring a contractor by procurement and arranging the restoration measures; organise volunteer training on restoration;
4. Communication (presenting work to the public) on dam removal, which includes organising the press tour for journalists and ecologists for removed dams; preparation of a short video film on the removal of the dam; preparation of project results on social networks (Facebook, webpage, etc.); development of a Toolkit on dam removal with guidelines (in Ukrainian);
5. Post-project monitoring consists of an evaluation of the dam removal and restoration measures. 

Project achievements

The overall goal of the project was achieved and  three dams on the Upper Tisza catchment were removed. The barriers were located on the Bilyi, Kvasnyi, and Bohdan mountain rivers, tributaries of the Tisza River within the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve (CBR) which includes the UNESCO Heritage Virgin Beech forest clusters.

The main outcomes of dam removal and river restoration include:

• Re-establishing ecological connectivity for nine listed IUCN fish species, opening a total of 140 km upstream – some for the first time in nearly 150 years!
• Reconstructing half a mile of vital road infrastructure, previously washed away, providing access to highland areas for farmers, border guards, protected areas, emergency services, and ecosystem services like access to mineral springs and opportunities for gathering mushrooms and blueberries.
• Direct benefits for over 10,000 people from dam removal and restoration activities.
• Increasing the conservation value of the entire Ukrainian Upper Tisza catchment, now with no dams and all rivers free-flowing – despite challenges such as air alarms, bombings, and Russian misinformation campaigns.
• Communication efforts that reached over a million people regarding dam removal.

The project was internationally recognised, receiving the 2024 European Dam Removal Award.