Water Talk 1/2005

New GWP CEE report Calendar of Events GWP CEE Council Meeting on public participation 9-10 April 2005 Krakow, Poland A NEW REPORT ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN terested parties in the implementation of the WATER MANAGEMENT IN THE EASTERN BAL- directive. This and other EU environmental pol- River Basin Management – progress towards im- TIC SEA REGION WAS PREPARED AS PART OF icy documents call for the wide partnership plementation of the Water Framework Directive GWP CEE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION TASK FORCE and participation of the society represented 19-20 May 2005 ACTIVITIES. by diverse stakeholder groups in environmen- Budapest, Hungary tal management. Public participation is rec- The conference focuses on the fresh water com- ognized as a tool that helps create awareness ponents of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), and ownership of decisions, which in turn is to review progress to date, share experience and necessary for their successful implementa- to identify possible future issues which may arise tion. Today a great number of examples (e.g. as the WFD is progressively implemented. CREDIT: P. UNT/PEIPSI CTC P. CREDIT: GWP Tool Box) prove that public participation strengthens democracy by showing stakehold- GWP Network meeting of the Consulting Partners ers that they can exert influence over the deci- 24-25 May 2005 sions that are made. The report gives an over- Antigua, Guatemala view on the progress of public involvement in The Consulting Partners meeting will focus on Lake Peipsi on the border between Estonia and Russia water management in Estonia, Latvia, Lithua- progress in preparing national Integrated Water nia and Poland. In addition, it analyzes public Resources Management (IWRM) and water effi- Recent years have seen the rapid growth of in- participation case studies and pilot projects ciency strategies by 2005. terest in public participation in a wide range and draws conclusions and recommendations of sectors and contexts, including environmen- for the future. The authors of the report are: Third International Symposium on Flood Defence tal management, agriculture and conservation. Janusz Topilko; Regional Water Management 25-27 May 2005 Public participation has gained wide recogni- Board, Gdansk, Poland; Dmitrij Zharkov, Cent- Nijmegen, The Netherlands tion on different levels of governance as a key er for Environmental Policy, Lithuania; Erika Scientists, engineers and administrators involved principle for water management. In 2000 the Lagzdina, The Regional Environmental Cent- in flood management are invited to participate. EU Water Framework Directive was adopted, er for CEE (REC) Latvia and Margit Säre, Peip- thus establishing a framework for community si Center for Transboundary Cooperation; International Conference on Hydrology, Ecology action in the field of water policy and stress- Estonia. You can find the full report on http:// and Water ing the importance of consultation with all in- www.riverdialogue.org/participation/ 20-23 June 2005 Bergen, Norway The conference will address a wide range of water related topics, linking together several themes GWP CEE celebrated World Water Day in rural development, and soil and water conser- IN THE OCCASION OF 22 MARCH WORLD WATER DAY, GWP CEE COUNTRY WATER PARTNERSHIPS vation. (CWPS) IN BULGARIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, ESTONIA, HUNGARY, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, POLAND, RO- MANIA, SLOVAKIA AND SLOVENIA ACTIVELY PROMOTED PRINCIPLES OF INTEGRATED WATER RE- Symposium for European freshwater sciences SOURCES MANAGEMENT (IWRM) THROUGH A SERIES OF NATIONAL AND LOCAL EVENTS. CWPs 22-16 August 2005 also participated in broader frame of celebrations together with other water stakeholders, e.g. Krakow, Poland GWP Lithuania organised drawing and photo competitions in close cooperation with local mu- The symposium will be devoted to basic questions nicipalities. GWP Bulgaria and their partners also contributed to 12th National Celebration of in freshwater biology and various aspects of ap- World Water Day in the capital city of Sofia, with presentations about IWRM, flash floods and plied freshwater science. economic aspects of EU Water Framework Directive. GWP Bulgaria also published an article about flash floods for “Water Affairs” magazine devoted specially to World Water Day. In Esto- SIWI Water Week nia, Estonian Water Association, Estonian Union of Waterworks and Ministry of the Environment 21-27 August 2005 organised a traditional Water Day conference. Main topics of the conference were floods and Stockholm, Sweden storms, in order to remind heavy storms which hit Baltic countries in the beginning of Janu- Water Symposium, a part of Stockholm Water ary 2005. Presentations covered a broach range of topics about marine environment, pollution, Week 2005, will explore the complementarities of floods and forecasting systems. In addition, Water Saving Prize was awarded for an outstanding soft and hard approaches in water management. success and model behaviour in water management. The relations between the water sector and other sectors of society will be of special relevance. efit from that support? How much money Interview with Raimonds Vejonis, is needed for improving and developing the environmental water infrastructure in the the Latvian Minister of Environment near future? IN CONTINUATION OF OUR SERIES OF INTER- year old Riga, the Riga Port is well known from The highest priority for acquiring EU Structur- VIEWS WITH THE MINISTERS OF THE ENVIRON- the Hansatic Union and the shipping channel al Funds and Cohesion Fund assistance is as- MENT FROM THE 10 CENTRAL AND EASTERN or ‘’fare water’’ which is artificially maintained signed to the development of municipal water EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, WHICH ARE PART OF by many hydro technical structures, all located supply and waste water collection and treat- GWP CEE REGION, WE BRING YOU THE INTER- roughly 20 kilometers from the sea. The build- ment systems in order to provide safe drinking VIEW WITH LATVIAN MINISTER OF THE ENVI- ings are stable and continue to work well; very water and ensure proper collection and treat- RONMENT, RAIMONDS VEJONIS. few accidents have been recorded over many ment of wastewater. With the assistance of the centuries. Only environmentally sustainable ISPA pre-accession financial instrument, water RAIMONDS VEJONIS studied Water and Envi- structures can survive under the pressure of services development projects are being imple- ronmental Management at the University of natural elements, therefore we can thank the mented in 23 towns and cities, but through the Tampere, Finland and graduated from the Uni- brilliant engineers from former generations. use of Cohesion Fund and ERDF co-financing - versity of Latvia. He has a strong background in During the last century we have built three water services will be developed in 67 agglom- biology, ecology and environmental engineer- ing. During his professional career he has held various senior level positions in governmental organizations in Latvia. Vejonis also has vast experience in implementing environmental infrastructure projects such as wastewater treat- ment and waste disposal. He is currently a vice- chairman of the Green Party of Latvia. Water Talk: GWP defines Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as a proc- ess which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. How do you see the challenges of IWRM implementation in the practice in Latvia? If we are talking about water resources per large hydro power plants on the River Dau- erations with populations above 2000, and in capita, Latvia, along with Canada, Sweden and gava. On the one hand we have reduced our more than 120 agglomerations with popula- Russia, is one of the very rich countries. How- dependence on energy imports. On the other, tions below 2000. In order to fully implement ever, half of our surface waters have their ori- the Daugava was the biggest salmon river in legal requirements related to water infrastruc- gin in neighboring countries and trans-bound- the Baltic Sae area and one of the biggest in ture, estimates show that investments of over ary waters are strongly influenced by activities the world. Therefore nowadays we are trying 900 million euro will be required. outside Latvia and even the EU. Therefore we to integrate carefully not only fish resources are active not only in implementation of the but all the wealth of hydro biological resourc- Water Talk: WFD is the most complex set EU WFD but in supporting UN/ECE Water Con- es into water management. Latvia is located of goals, tools and commitments in the EU vention and other tools like the EU Water Initi- at the edge of inland waters and the sea and water sector to date. Two of the main WFD ative and the GWP. One could say that Latvia is we should bear in mind that not only the Gulf goals are the protection and improvement on the lucky side with a rather low population of Riga but the entire Baltic Sea is vulnerable. of water ecosystems quality and sustainable, density and an abundance of forests, including Therefore we must feel more responsible for balanced and equitable water use. This direc- swampy forests, and wetlands, marches and water resources management and introduce tive provides broad opportunities for public bogs, which are good preconditions for the IWRM as the best tool we can apply. participation in river basin management and successful development of IWRM. Neverthe- is probably transposed into Latvian legis- less, part of the country consists of lowlands, Water Talk: Implementation of EU legisla- lation. How could the participation of the similar to those in Holland, where settlements tion for the new members, which entered the public and NGO’s be ensured during imple- can be located and agriculture developed only EU in May 2004, means an opportunity for mentation of this directive and especially in after water regulation activities have been improving the environmental infrastructure preparation of river basin management plans successfully implemented.

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