Famous product from our country

FIVE SENSESCOMENIUS PROJECT

Florentina Tudor, Ștefania Radu

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

DANUBE-BLACK SEA CHANNEL

• The Danube–Black Sea Canal (Romanian: Canalul Dunăre – Marea Neagră) is a canal in Romania, which runs from Cernavodă, on the Danube to Constanţa (southern arm, as main branch), and to Năvodari (northern arm), on the Black Sea.

• Administrated from Agigea, it is an important part of the European canal system that links the North Sea (through the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal) to the Black Sea.

• The Canal was notorious as the site of labor camps in 1950s Communist Romania, when, at any given time, several tens of thousands political prisoners worked on its excavation.

• The total number of people used as a workforce for the entire period is unknown, as is the number of people who died in the construction.

• These works were later used in the Carasu irrigation system.

• The earliest plans for building this canal were in late 1830s• The decision to build the Danube – Black Sea Canal was taken on May 25, 1949

by the Politburo of the Romanian Workers' Party and the Petru Groza executive.• In June 1973, the project, with a complete new design, was restarted by

Nicolae Ceauşescu.• The cost of building the canal is estimated to be around 2 billion dollars, and

was supposed to be recovered in 50 years. However, as of 2005, it has a yearly income of only a little over 3 million euros.

• Danube-Black Sea Canal, the third largest in the world after the Suez and Panama, those its 60 km is a crucial outlet for countries that have no access to the sea in Central and Eastern Europe.

• The canal is entered from the Black Sea at Constanta South Port through the locks at Agigea (Km 1.9). The canal then trends in a NW'ly direction to join the Danube at Cernavoda.

• The canal shortens the distance from the Black Sea to Danube ports by approx 400km.

• The Danube-Black Sea conduit is yet another important passage in the western European region. In addition to connecting the Danube River to the Black Sea, this shipping canal also in a way interlinks the Black Sea to the North Sea by way of the Danube-Main-Rhine conduit and provides a maritime passage to Eastern Europe by way of the Volga-Don canal.

• The canal is important as it helps vessels to bypass the difficult deltaic region of Danube and thus enable continuity in maritime operations.