The City of Ostrava has finally said what it really thinks about a multi-billion project that Czech president Milos Zeman has been promoting for years. Zeman’s dream has long been to create a river connection between the Danube, Oder and Elba rivers that would allow huge barges to transport goods across Europe. In discussions over the project, deputies from across the political spectrum in Ostrava’s city assembly mocked the idea calling it a barbaric, ecological catastrophe. Opposition deputies joined with the city’s governing parties in a statement to the Czech government, calling on it to cease all preparations for beginning work on part of the canal near Ostrava until a more detailed analysis of the impact on the environment is carried out. Ostrava’s mayor Tomas Macura said the canal wouldn’t benefit the city at all and would cost the state billions of crowns to complete. “The project is surplus to requirements and outdated,” said Macura. “Our region has changed. The mining of raw materials is ending. And the new automobile industry doesn’t care about water transport,” he said.
