The new plant at Dunaújváros will ensure that wastewater from 60,000 local residents will be clean before it rejoins the river.

Dunaújváros was the last city without a biological wastewater treatment plant; the project fulfilled a long-standing duty both for the people in the region and for the Danube.

Located approximately 70 kilometres south of Budapest along the bank of the Danube, Dunaújváros is much like any other medium-sized town in Hungary. Large-scale industry dominates the town, in particular, the giant Dunaferr steel works, and the Dunapack paper mill. The town boasts a population close to 60,000, and one of the busiest ports in Hungary. Water supply and the removal of sanitary sewage are better than in most Hungarian towns, but until recently the communal sewage collected was discharged with-out any treatment to the Danube.

That has changed with the opening in 2002 of a waste- water treatment plant along the Danube, a project that was long needed and a long time in prepara tion. Ferenc Papp, who worked as Technical Designer and Engineer on the project from 1994 to 2002, says the project was long needed: “In Hungary, along the Danube, Dunaújváros was the last city without a biological wastewater treatment plant, therefore the project fulfilled a long-standing duty both for the people in the region and for the Danube.”

Finding support.
Construction of the plant was made possible through decisions of the Central Transdanubian District Water Authority and the government to protect the Danube from harmful pollution. With support of the PHARE Programme of the European Community and under supervision by World Bank experts, a feasibility study for municipal sewage treatment was prepared for six county-status towns including Dunaújváros.

The funds for the new wastewater plan were provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Deve lopment, and the Commission of the European Communities, and the plant was finally completed in 2002.

Meeting technical specifications.
The new plant is situated on the Danube and includes mechanical and biological wastewater treatment, as well as sludge treatment by homogenisation and thickening. The plant is capable of handling the average and extreme hydraulic and sewage loads.

To improve the efficiency of the system it was nec-essary to upgrade the old mechanical plants, to reconstruct the pressure pipes, and to respond with new operational expectations such as septic sludge collection, an outlet in the stream line of the Danube river, a laboratory for controlling plant operation and environmental monitoring.

One of the challenging features of the project proved to be the site’s location. Built directly on the riverside at the foot of a loess hill, the main sewer had to lead down to the river and the site of the plant had to be filled in artificially. “This presented several challenges for construction, as it was necessary to take into account the sensitive stability of the hillside,” says Papp.

This new facility is one of the success sites along the Danube that will provide much needed sewage treatment to fill in a blank in Hungary’s wastewater programme, reducing human impacts on the environment and protecting the Danube.

Kirstie Shepherd
is a freelance journalist living in Vienna and
has called the Danube River Basin home since 2000.