Environmentalists say a dam built for a hydroelectric power plant near Bratislava is causing major damage to the ecosystem of a nearby flood plain now deprived of water. The Gabcikovo dam – 50 kilometers south of Slovakia's capital - began operating in 1992. It's been the subject of a debate over its energy benefits and the damage it's causing to the natural habitat.

Environmentalists have long claimed that the ecosystem in this part of Europe's second-longest river is in jeopardy because of human activity. In late August the Danube in the area near Gabcikovo saw a huge fall in water levels. 

The increase of water flow via the dam has brought benefits to local agriculture and electricity production – but not to the ecosystem. Instead of flowing into streams from the Danube and providing much needed water for the region's ecology, the flow is dedicated to the Gabcikovo hydropower plant further downstream.

"We always had important streams that had flowing water," Katarina Holubova, director of the state-owned Research Institute for Water Management, told CGTN. "Now we haven't any stream within the whole area with flowing water."

Any water diverted away from the main flow of the Danube will not produce electricity at the Gabcikovo power plant, and is thus considered a waste. Yet at Dobrohost, several dozen kilometers upstream from the plant, a barrier prevents much of the water from flowing to much of the river's delicate ecosystem. 

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To minimize the losses and use the water released from the Danube into its tributaries, authorities built a mini hydropower plant directly behind the barrier. The problem is that the power plant can use only around 25 cubic meters of water per second which then flows into the floodplains. 

In response the authorities decided to limit the flow through the barrier to the mini plant to avoid wasting water. But at the same time the ecosystem needs water to flow at a rate several times higher.

The irony is that the mini plant is owned by the state, which is also in charge of environmental policies. 

But it's not only the lack of water that damages this ecosystem. A drone flying over the area shows a beautiful and lush forest nearby. A closer looks reveals the forest to be entirely man-made. 

To plant thousands of poplar trees for use in the wood industry, the original tree and plant varieties were removed. Andrej Somora, from the State Nature Protection Administration, said this is having a devastating impact.

Somora told CGTN: "The entire ecosystem is degrading. The level of underground water goes down. In some places, forests are beginning to dry out. It is not only individual species that are threatened here but the whole biotope of the floodplain forest. And the entire river ecosystem is degrading."

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