A throughout the empire, drains and rivers polluted chemicals, industrial smoke choked the cities, the radiation destroyed the land, open pit mines were like a scar in the valleys. It was difficult to assess the seriousness of the situation. The goal was always to meet production quotas and no one paid attention to the environment.

Today, the eastern part of Europe is divided into two: one part has been cleaned with the help of large amounts money from the West and the incentive represents a possible admission to1000the prosperous European Union, on the other, would give the impression that the commissioners were never communist.

Two rivers reflect these stories of contrasts.

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Explore the Dnieper River in Ukraine, former Soviet bloc countries important, involves crossing black and orange clouds emissions of an industrial plant.

On a hill, the passengers feel the smell of burning garbage. Many lots have barbed wire with signs warning of radioactivity. Not far away, a ship passes by the third nuclear power plant world”s largest.

near Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, the Dnieper receives the waters of the Pripyat, with radioactive sediment of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which experienced the biggest nuclear disaster in history in 1986.

To the southwest, in countries that joined the EU, another river, the Danube is better every day. Cruise ships pass through areas where the public bathes and people of different nationalities walk the concourses that inspired the music of Johann Strauss. Throughout its course there are more and more forests and swamps declared protected areas.

In 1989, the section of the Danube which ran communist countries was as the Dnieper, an ecological disaster of proportions epic. The oil slicks issued reflections with the colors of the rainbow. In many areas there were no fish and the abundant algae stinking banks. Worse than the visible signs of contamination were the invisible micro poisoned the entire ecosystem.

At the crossroads of geography and history, however, sealed the fate of two other rivers.

The Dnieper is born in Russia and flows into the Black Sea. Walk southeastern Belarus and Ukraine, two countries that are linked to the Kremlin.

The Danube, for its part, made a triumphal march through the countries of Eastern Europe that are joining the EU. Born in Germany and represents the boundary between that country and several new EU members: Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.

The river runs through 2857 kilometers (1775 miles) from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. Live in its basin 83 million people in 19 countries.

Five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, most of these countries sharing the Danube signed an agreement on how to manage river. It was part of an ambitious project for which the Western nations would provide large amounts of money to clean up Eastern Europe.

In five years, from 2000, the Danube countries invested 3500 billion in the construction of water treatment plants in hundreds of cities and towns along the river and its 26 major tributaries. And spent an additional $ 500 million on wetland restoration and cleaning of industrial waste.

Chemicals that kill algae fed vegetation and threatened the health of human beings have declined substantially since 1989, although their levels remain above those of 1950.

Countries in the former Soviet bloc had a double incentive to clean their territories: Western aid and admission EU. Eager to meet the EU requirements regarding the environment, recycled gas separators placed in operating coal-fired plants, water purification plants built and set limits on emissions returning to earth as acid rain.

was a monumental task.

An area known as the Black Triangle in the tripartite border of Germany, Poland and Czech Republic had a concentration of coal mines and heavy industries that choked the region with ash and industrial gases. With the help of the EU, the three coun1000tries closed some factories, began to use clean fuel and installed new technology.

In a decade, emissions of sulfur dioxide fell by 91%, nitrous oxide fell 78% and solid particles down to 96% depending on the environmental agenda of the United Nations.

For the Danube, the cleaning was more than an ecological project. Danube Convention made people change their minds, fell down some barriers between former enemies and forced the coastal communities to work together, putting aside old animosities.

“The Danube River is a vital, linked to culture and the people who live there, “said Philip Weller, executive secretary of the committee.

” There is a raging river. It is a circulatory route that connects the richest parts of Europe the western part of Germany with the poorest, such as Ukraine and Moldova.

The river is not pristine, “but in the last 20 years have greatly improved things,” said Andreas Beckmann, the World Wildlife Fund . After 150 years of abuse and loss of 80 of its marshes, “the Danube is largely recovered,” he said.

With the support of the fund levees were demolished and re-connect rivers system. 50,000 hectares were restored, or a fifth of the marshes recovered, said Beckmann.

However, the river shows irreparable scars of the Soviet era.

In Romania there are dams and plants hydropower that can not be dismantled and that block the migratory route of the majestic fish sturgeon.

And progress brings new threats: more packaging, more waste and detergents containing phosphorus and stimulate the proliferation of algae that smother the river.