Monitoring and Improving the Rivers in the Vardar/Axios Watershed Atanasko Tuneski, George Balafoutas Sts. Cyril and Methodius University Skopje, MACEDONIA Abstract The paper presents the outcomes and activities that will be carried out in the MIRVAX (Monitoring and Improving the Rivers in the Vardar/Axios Watershed) project, financed by the NATO Science for Piece program in the two and a half year period, starting from January 2006. The paper presents: (i) Actual situation in the Vardar/Axios river watershed; (ii) The problem to be addressed in the MIRVAX project; (iii) The main steps of the MWS (Monitoring the Watershed Sustainability) path and IWS (Improving the Watershed Sustainability) path and their corresponding relative weights; (iv) The MIRVAX project justification; (v) The science or technology that will be developed and applied in order to realize the MWS and IWS paths; (v) The status of related research and development activities in the FYR Macedonia and world-wide; (vi) The equipment and facilities necessary to realize the MIRVAX project. Keywords: watershed monitoring, watershed improvement, river water quality, SCADA systems Vardar river basin General conditions Vardar River (in the FYR Macedonia) or Axios River (in Greece) is the longest and largest river of the FYR Macedonia and one of the largest in Greece, with a length of 302 km in the FYR Macedonia and 87 km in Greece. The watersheds of the FYR Macedonia are shown in Table 1 and the hydrographic characteristics of the Vardar and its main tributaries are in Table 2. Table1. The watersheds of the FYR Macedonia RIVER VARDAR 20,400 km2 (80%) River Lebnicka 130 km2 (0,5%) 2 2 River Crn Drim 3,200 km (13%) Dojran Lake 120 km (0,5%) River Strumica 1,500 km2 ( 6%) River Binacka Morava 45 km2(0,2%) Table 2. Hydrographic characteristics of the Vardar river and its main tributaries Average Average Annual Length River Watershed elevation discharge discharge [km] 3 6 [km2] [m] [m /s] [m³]x10 VARDAR 20,400 793 302 45.0 4,565 Crna 4,850 863 228 7.5 1,178 Treska 1,920 1,010 139 2.4 762 Bregalnica 4,300 722 225 4.0 444 Pcinja 2,500 758 136 2.5 397 The average elevation of the FYR Macedonia’s Vardar watershed is 793 m. The elevation of the Vardar at its spring {in Shara massif, near Vrutok/Gostivar}, is 683m and at the Greek border 50m. The average annual rainfall is 660 mm and the total annual discharge is ca. 4,5 million m3. The floodplain of Vardar is mainly used for agricultural activities, including cattle-breeding. The Vardar River, its tributaries Crna, Bregalnica, Pcinja, Treska, Lepenec and a large number of smaller water currents form a dense hydrographic network (Fig. 1). Several large chemical industries and hydro- electric power stations are located in the Vardar river basin and its sub-basins. Water, abstracted from the rivers is used 63% for irrigation, 15% for municipalities and industries, 12% for (production) of drinking water and 11% for fish ponds. Figure 1. FYR Macedonia, Greece and the Vardar/Axios River, the red line is the border of the Vardar/Axios basin, yellow lines is the borders between the FYR Macedonia and neighboring countries. The FYR Macedonia, with a population of 2,045,300 inhabitants (July 2005), is situated in the central southern part of the Balkan Peninsula and has common borders with Greece (246 km), Serbia and Montenegro (221 km), Albania (151 km), and Bulgaria (148 km). Independently of the evaluation criterion {i.e. geographical extent, economical resource, environmental resource, drinking water supplier, industrial water supplier, agricultural water supplier, energy supplier, municipal sewage receiver, industrial wastewater receiver, fishing, recreation, tourism, social aspect} the Vardar river could be considered as synonymous with the FYR Macedonia, because it corresponds to the 75% of the country’s water resources and 80% of the FYR Macedonia’s territory (Table 1, Fig. 1). It is a landlocked, mountainous country, bisected by the Vardar River, with a territory of 25,333 km2, from which 2% (477 km2) is water. The country is covered with deep basins and valleys, large lakes, and has highest point at Golem Korab (2,764 m), and lowest point at the passage of the Vardar River to Greece (50 m). The climate is warm, with dry summers and autumns and relatively cold winters with heavy snowfall. Being in the north of Greece, the FYR Macedonia has 150 km of highways, 5500 km of paved roads, 700 km of railways, and has as natural seaport the Greek town of Thessaloniki. It is part of the major transportation corridor from Western and Central Europe to Aegean Sea. Thessaloniki may be reached by car from almost all the big towns, industrial and agricultural centres of the FYR Macedonia in less than 3 to 4 hours. Data from 2004 show that: • Exports reach $1.650 billion, concern food, beverages, tobacco, miscellaneous manufactures, iron and steel, and have as best partners Serbia-Montenegro (31%), Germany (20%), and Greece (9%); • Imports reach $2.680 billion, concern food products, machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, and automobiles, and have as best partners Greece (18%), Germany (14%), and Serbia- Montenegro (9%). Based on the available data, it can be stated that the river water pollution is generally higher downstream of the industrial towns. Only 10% of the FYR Macedonia wastewater may be reported as treated before its disposal to rivers. Among the more seriously polluted are the central and lower sections of the Vardar and its tributaries Pcinja, Bregalnica and Crna River, while Treska River is considered to be rather clean. The economic life and almost all the important towns are related to Vardar River or to one of its tributaries. Skopje, the capital of the FYR Macedonia (about 600,000), most of the biggest or industrial cities as Kumanovo (105,000), Bitola (90,000), Prilep (75,000), Tetovo (70,000), Veles (60,000), Gostivar (50,000), Stip (50,000), Kavardarci (40,000), Kocani (35,000), Kicevo (30,000), Gevgelija 2 (25,000), and many other smaller towns and villages, with a total population of over 1,7 million inhabitants, are located in the Vardar watershed. Therefore any improvement of the Vardar watershed may be considered as synonymous to the improvement and the development of the whole FYR Macedonia. Evidently a monitoring system for the river’s water quality control will be beneficial for most of the country’s population and for the FYR Macedonia economy. Economic development of the country is endangered by a variety of environmental threats, among them surface water pollution and degradation of water resources being the most important issues. Water pollution may cause serious damages to the terrestrial and aquatic flora, fauna, drinking water supplies and, consequently, to humans. The pollution of the Vardar River is caused mainly by the unregulated inflow of untreated domestic and industrial wastewater, which is usually containing a large variety of toxic inorganic and organic substances, microbes and excessive amounts of nutrients. As a result, large-scale fish-kills occur rather frequently and direct drinking water supply is unusable even for livestock. The quality of surface water in the FYR Macedonia watersheds does not always comply with the relevant environmental regulations, because it is usually in the range of 3rd to 4th class, in certain downstream parts of the rivers of the 5th class and only some upstream parts can be classified as 1st and 2nd class water. Water shortage, especially in summer, is a common phenomenon and it becomes worse due to decreasing groundwater reserves. The groundwater is generally considered to be of a good quality and it is used for drinking water supply without any or only after a minimum treatment. However, pollution of shallow groundwater in some areas occurs due to inadequate on-site prevention measures and/or leaching of various contaminants from mining, landfilling, industrial and/or agricultural activities. Groundwater resources are suspected to be polluted in areas near Skopje and Veles. The 87% of the FYR Macedonia water resources belong to the wider Aegean basin and, out of this, 75% flows into the gulf of Thermaikos, a few kilometers west of Thessaloniki with its 1,2 million inhabitants. Thus Vardar/Axios besides its importance for the FYR Macedonia plays also an economical and environmental role of equal importance for Greece. Vardar/Axios and the interconnected ground water bodies, especially the aquifers on the territory around Dojran Lake, are the unique sources of irrigation water resource to the fertile plain of Thessaloniki. The river forms together with the Greek river Aliakmon an important delta protected by the RAMSAR Convention. At the same time, the Vardar/Axios River is blamed to be the biggest single pollution source of the closed bay of Thessaloniki and Thermaikos Gulf. Obviously, there is a tremendous common interest both in the FYR Macedonia and Greece for water pollution control and improvement of its quality in the Vardar/Axios watershed. The problem to be addressed in the MIRVAX project Тhe MIRVAX Project, has the main and one complementary objectives: A. Monitoring the Watershed Sustainability (MWS, MIRVAX Monitoring Network), where initiatives and responsibility belong to the engineers and scientists and which are the technological tasks, divided in four specific objectives/actions: 1. Establishment and operation of the Vardar/Axios (VAX) Monitoring Network (VaxMN) complementing FYR Macedonia effort towards implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Investigative identification of the chemical surface/ground water quality status and upgrading the capacities of the Central Laboratory in the FYR Macedonia Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning (MEPP). 2. Design and implementation of the SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) systems and the remote data processing system.