COOPERATION ALONG A BIG RIVER DECEMBER 2005 ISSUE 1
LOCAL BEAT The Volga River: Russia’s strained lifeline
By Oleg Kashchenko and Michelle French
The Volga basin is many things to many people. It is a breadbasket and fisheries centre, a navigational artery for transport and industry, and a source of clean energy helping to meet the demands of a consuming public. It is home to about half of Russia’s population, carries 70 percent of inland waterway traffic, accounts for half of inland fish stocks, and supports half its agriculture. No small feat for the largest river in Europe. But the Volga basin, comprising 1.36 million square kilometers, shows signs of distress from domestic and industrial pressures.
As with major European rivers, wastewater and resource depletion continuously challenge the Volga’s ability to cleanse itself and provide a source of potable water. On the whole, these pressures have been increasing.
Take the relationship between population and water
quality, for example. About 70 percent of the river’s Fabrice Renaud pollutants — including oil, nutrients, and heavy metals — Hydropower has turned Europe’s longest river into a chain of come from residential and agricultural sources, with 444 man-made seas. towns and 57 million rural and urban inhabitants in the basin. Combined with industrial sources, about 20 km3 of wastewater flows into the ecosystem every year. Today some 88 fish species can be found in the Volga While industry has become cleaner since 1992, only 15 basin, a rise from 74 before dam construction. percent of treated wastewater meets national standards. Yet, 85 percent of drinking water in the Volga basin is Dams have brought mixed results for human health and taken from surface water sources, including the Volga itself. community vitality. On the one hand, they have improved and strengthened the economy by providing Fish stocks in the Lower Volga (which flows into the energy reserves at a time when world energy costs are Northern Caspian basin) have responded unevenly to the rising. On the other, settlements have been disrupted, pressures of poaching, over-fishing, and hydropower. causing acute social problems associated with During the last 30 years, the sturgeon catch plummeted resettlement. Flood mitigation has been essential to due to losses of spawning grounds, food base preserve the more than 80,000 archeological disturbances, and over-fishing and poaching. In 2002 monuments, 96 historical cities and rural settlements, poaching exceeded legal catches by 15 times. Official fish and UNESCO World Heritage sites within the basin. catches are one quarter of their 1970 level. The Volga and Kama dams — constructed during the Soviet era — have The Volga basin is a bountiful resource but it is also also impacted fish reserves. Only two of 11 dams have fish under pressure. With President Vladimir Putin’s May 16, ladders, and flooding has destroyed spawning grounds. 2003 address to the Federal Assembly declaring his intention to double Russia’s GDP over the next decade Nevertheless, the Lower Volga and Northern Caspian (i.e. by 2010), basin experts are faced with the ultimate basins still account for half of Russia’s inland fish catch balancing act: how to promote needed economic growth every year. Fortunately, no species of fish has disappeared while ensuring social and environmental integrity. completely, thanks to riverine havens in remote tributaries. What is more, during the 1980s, some species Oleg Kashchenko is the assistant professor of the UNESCO Co-chair at Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. from the White and Baltic Seas, as well as from the Black Michelle French graduated in 2005 from the Master’s of Journalism and Caspian Seas have appeared in the Upper Volga. programme at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
LATEST SCORES River managers must work together 2 A visionary confluence 3 NEWSBYTES Project partner dies 4 IN PRINT Gaps identified in Danube analysis 4 CABRI VOLGA BRIEF
River managers must work together
International group of experts calls for strengthened water management, better coordination
By Jerome Simpson • The River and Environmental Rehabilitation group worked on standards for water quality; Water experts from Russia and the EU wastewater; integrated water this fall proposed stronger water resource management (while management and coordination referring to the Volga Revival among different administrative levels Programme and the Dnepr in the Volga basin. The proposal was Global Environment Facility made during an expert group meeting project); monitoring; data held September 28-29 in Nizhny exchange; management; and Novgorod, Russia, and organised as communication to the public. part of the CABRI-Volga project. The group called for better information exchange and public While diverse opinions were access. The participants pleaded debated, there was a wide for the restart of the Volga ra he consensus that stronger policy and a Vis Revival Programme, and issued a Kam Solikamsk institutional integration needs to be call for performance targets and Berezniki achieved. This will require greater va goals for river basin authorities. Cuso Perm Syl involvement of non-governmental v stakeholders, transfer of experiences • The Human Security and from other rivers in Europe as well Vulnerability group looked at Kirov vulnerabilities of rural Vya as the establishment of structures tka communities and small and successfully implemented in other Volga medium-sized cities. The experts Yaroslavl Cheboksary large river basins. The extent to Tverca Kazan Ivanovo evaluated risk assessment and Ster which a Volga agency or basin Volga Nizhny communication and information Novgorod council could better coordinate the Moscow Ulyanovsk oskva exchange in the Volga basin. M Oka Tolya activities of different administrative ttiSamara Ryazan Sam Syzran They reviewed land-use and Sura levels and develop water Smolensk Novokuybishevsk Novomoskovsk Penza management standards in the hydro-morphological change; Tula dangers of flood protection and ga Russian Federation will be discussed Vol extreme weather; monitoring Orel in subsequent expert group Bryansk Saratov
practices; disaster prevention and Voronezh meetings during 2006. Kursk management responsibility. KAZ During the meeting, hosted by • A group focused on Natural Nizhny Novgorod State University of Kiev Resources and their Sustainable Volgograd Architecture and Civil Engineering, Kharkov Use focused on existing and U KRAINE Achtuba more than 60 water experts discussed foreseen laws in water Dnepropetrovsk Volga challenges and exchanged management; institutional Astrakhan experiences related to Volga River C frameworks; multi-stakeholder Kilometers 0 150300 450 600 750 basin management within five partnerships; reforms in property distinct groups. Each expert group rights; and integration of a coordination mechanism for consisted of about 12 representatives economic growth with passenger and freight transport from civil society, business, the environmental concerns. and discussed ways to reduce scientific community and decision water pollution. making bodies, with resident Volga • The Connecting Goods and basin specialists typically constituting People group discussed transport • The Institutional Coordination two-thirds of the participants. aspects of the river. The group and Cooperation group discussed Overall, the meeting sought to foster analysed the urban mobility the design and implementation of institutional cooperation and multi- situation; and conceptualised a environmental programmes for stakeholder networking within the potential Volga Mobility Master the river basin. The group basin and with EU counterparts. Plan to 2010. Members proposed proposed better coordination of
2 December 2005 Issue 1 LATEST SCORES
A visionary confluence
EU and Russia cooperate to help the Volga basin
By Michelle French
It’s an example of “twinning” — a process in which two partners share the responsibilities of a project. In the case of the CABRI-Volga project, this means that an equal number of water experts and stakeholders from the Russian Federation and the European Union (EU) jointly explore Volga basin development as it responds to human pressures. On the Russian side, CABRI-Volga succeeds Volga Vision, an interdisciplinary, sustainable development project of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Beginning in the late 1990s, UNESCO began bringing together Russian scientists and polititians to establish a vision. They created a document describing environmental and human risk in the Volga-Caspian basin, Siegfried Rupprecht providing a summary of potential environmental goals for basin inhabitants Scale 1 : 15 000 000 Shipping at the port of Nizhny Novgorod and serving as a reference for follow-up activities and research. is one of the pressures on the Volga River. “The Volga Vision is a summary of what scientists believe can be achieved in one generation. It is a desirable, but realistic imagination of aya resource allocation and suggested the future,” explains Janos Bogardi, who helped spearhead the UNESCO lva various basin management project before becoming director of the United Nations University approaches to boost interaction Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in 2003. between business, civil society Research into the Caspian and costal zones continues as part of the Ufa and authorities. second phase of the vision’s implementation.
Ufa Belaja The first expert group meeting, part CABRI-Volga emerged in 2004 as an EU-funded project to facilitate rlitamak of a series of three within the cooperation and coordinate research in environmental risk management in project, focused on sharing state-of- large river basins in the EU, Russia and the Newly Independent States (NIS). the-art expert assessments and good Within this, UNU-EHS, UNESCO-Moscow and other Russian stakeholders mara Orenburg practices from across Europe, the together with EU policy makers and scientists sought to focus the vision with United States and South America. multi-disciplinary research from a broad base of European water specialists. These included the integrated Ultimately, Bogardi sees CABRI-Volga as an intermediate step to one of catchment area concept of the the vision’s objectives — the implementation of scientifically informed Neckar River in Germany (IKoNE); policy making. From an EU perspective, CABRI-Volga is an opportunity Z AKHSTAN integrated flood management and to enhance relations with Russia through environmental protection flood risk reduction in the City of assistance. The European Commission contributes approximately Curitiba in Brazil, and the EUR 1 million. “It’s about the wisdom of crowds. The many are smarter Watershed Education for than the few,” said Cornelia Nauen, principal scientific officer at the EC. Communities and Local Officials “Many different people and perspectives need to be involved.” n Sea (WECO) initiative in the US. Caspia Summaries of the discussions are at: Serguei Smirnov, who worked with UNESCO-Moscow during CABRI-Volga’s
Issue 1 December 2005 3 CABRI VOLGA BRIEF NEWSBYTES
IN PRINT Project partner Gaps identified in Professor Naidenko dies Danube analysis
Partners of the CABRI-Volga project have In late October, the International been saddened to learn of the sudden Commission for the Protection of the death of Professor Valentin V. Naidenko, Danube River (ICPDR) released a rector of Nizhny Novgorod State University final report on the first stakeholders’ of Architecture and Civil Engineering conference on the Danube River (NNSUACE) on October 20, 2005 at the basin held last June in Budapest. age of 67. The report outlines responses of Naidenko was a doctor of technical sciences, some 100 stakeholders regarding an honorary freeman of Nizhny Novgorod, a 2005’s ICPDR activities. The member of the Russian Academy of feedback identified missing data in Architecture and Construction Sciences and the Danube Analysis Report, a State Prize winner of the Russian Federation comprehensive review of basin in Science and Engineering. characteristics and human pressures. NNSUACE He was described by Siegfried Rupprecht, CABRI-Volga project manager, Jasmine Bachmann of the ICPDR as “an excellent scientist and one of the great personalities of our time.” Secretariat welcomed comments on Rupprecht added, “We have lost a great supporter and friend.” the report. “It lays the foundations for the activities that will be carried As one of the leading partners of the CABRI-Volga endeavour, Nizhny out in the next few years,” she said. Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering last month hosted the first expert group meeting of the project, where water Stakeholders also stressed the need experts from across the European Union and Russia discussed and for a stakeholder network and more exchanged views and experiences on river basin management. meetings. The ICPDR will respond to participants’ concerns by Professor Naidenko’s further distinctions include: prize winner of the USSR December, and will also address Council of Ministers, merited worker of Science and Engineering of the gaps in the report’s research. Russian Federation, honorary constructer of Russia, honorary worker of Higher Education of Russia, and UNESCO chairholder of the initiative The ICPDR is a partnership of 13 “Ecologically Safe Development of a Large Region — the Volga basin.” In countries sharing the Danube basin. addition, Naidenko was a Knight of Order of Honour, a Knight of Order “For Contribution to the Motherland” and a Knight of Order “Vernadsky’s Star”.
The project team would like to extend its deepest sorrows and sympathies to Professor Naidenko’s family and friends.
CABRI-Volga supports information and know-how exchange between Russian and European stakeholders in the water management domain. Its overall aim is to EVENTS engender effective river basin management, foster cooperation and networking, and European integration. It is EC/UN financed and runs until February 2007. More MARCH 16-22 APRIL 3-7 MAY information on goals, partners and forthcoming events is online, in both English and Russian, at: www.cabri-volga.org. Fourth World Water Forum Second CABRI-Volga Great Rivers Forum 2006 Expert Group Meeting The CABRI VOLGA BRIEF seeks to raise awareness to the Mexico City Nizhny Novgorod Volga region based on the views of a variety of stakeholders, Web:
4 December 2005 Issue 1