European Union Water Initiative Plus for Eastern Partnership Countries (EUWI+): Results 2 and 3 ENI/2016/372-403 THEMATIC SUMMARY PRIPYAT RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT PLAN IN BELARUS March 2020 Pripyat River Basin Management Plan prepared шт 2019-2020 by the Central Research Institute for Complex Use of Water Resources (CRICUWR) in the frame of realization Term of Reference on the Contract between CRICUWR and IOWater/OIEau “Development of draft River Basin Management Plan for PRIPYAT River Basin in Belarus” (Registration N° EUWI-EAST-BY-07). The management plan draft for the Pripyat River Basin was developed by RUE "CRICUWR" on the basis of Article 15 of the Water Code of the Republic of Belarus dated April 30, 2014 No.149-З [1] in order to preserve and restore water bodies, as well as the integrated use of water resources in the Pripyat River Basin. Parts of the RBMP are created taking into account the recommendations of the Water Framework Directive of the European Union, as well as taking into account the requirements of the technical code of established practice of TCP 17.06-14-2017 (33140) “Environmental protection and nature management. Hydrosphere”. In the framework of the RBMP, measures have been developed aimed at improving the ecological state (status) of surface water bodies (their parts) of the Pripyat River basin. The implementation of the RBMP is planned for 10 years from 2021 to 2030. The developed measures should also be taken into account when forming state and other programs, regional series of measures in the field of water pro- tection and use. CONTENTS 1. Characterization of the river basin district ..................................................................................... 2 2. Pressures and impacts of human activities on water resources ................................................... 5 3. Protected areas ............................................................................................................................. 8 4. Water bodies status and risk analysis ......................................................................................... 10 5. Environmental objectives ............................................................................................................. 13 6. Ecomonic analysis ........................................................................................................................ 14 7. Programme of measures ............................................................................................................. 15 a. Type of measures.................................................................................................................... 15 b. Cost ......................................................................................................................................... 19 c. Stakeholders to be involved .................................................................................................... 19 8. Summary of strategies, programmes, plans and projects ........................................................... 20 9. Summary of the consultations ...................................................................................................... 21 10. List of competent authorities ...................................................................................................... 21 11. Procedure for obtaining the technical reports ............................................................................ 21 1 1. Characterization of the river basin district The Pripyat River is the most water-abundant tributary of the Dnieper River. It originates near the city of Volodymyr-Volynskyi (Ukraine). Its headstream is located near the settlement Gupolyto the south- west of the city of Shatsk at an altitude of 165 m above sea level.Over about 200 km the river flows through the territory of Ukraine, and then it flows through the territory of Belarus.The mouth of the river is 70 km long, stretching from the Krasno settlement to the confluence of the Kiev reservoir (the Dnie- perRiver) within Ukraine. From the headstream to the city of Pinsk (Belarus), the river flows mainly from the southwest to the northeast. Near the city of Pinsk, Pripyat turns to the east and flows almost along the latitudinal direction to the city of Mazyr, where it changes its direction to the southeast, which continues up to the mouth. According to the latest data, the Pripyat basin area is 114300 km2, and the length of the river is 761 km (Figure 1). Within the territory of the Republic of Belarus, these values constitute, respectively, 50822 km2 (24.5% of the area of the Republic of Belarus) and 495 km. The Belarusian part of the ba- sin accounts for 44.5% of the catchment area, and the Ukrainian part includes 55.5%. Figure 1 - Global map of the Pripyat river basin The climate of the Pripyat basin is moderate continental, characterized by warm and humid summers and fairly mild winters.Climate continentality increases in the south-east direction. The annual amounts of the radiation balance increase from southwest to east and southeast from 1200 MJ/m2 to 1735 MJ/m2. The radiation balance of the territory largely predetermines the temperature regime. The modern relief of the Pripyat River Basin is represented mainly by flat and billowy-sloping lowlands and plains, river valleys and individual massifs of glacial-moraine formations. The depth of dissection usually does not exceed 5 m. And only in some places, in the area of elevation, it can reach 50 m or more. The Pripyat basin is notable for a high degree of bogging. About 1/3 of its surface is covered by swamps. Herbal (eutrophic) swamps occupying wide floodplains of river valleys prevail here. Swamp is a moistened area of the earth's surface, overgrown with hygrophilous vegetation.. It is characterized by the accumulation of undecomposed plant residues and the formation of peat (a layer of at least 0.3 m.). A population of 1060.675 thousand lives within the territory of the Pripyat river basin. This amount includes 602.49 thousand urban populations and 458.185 thousand rural populations. As of January 1, 2018, in the Pripyat river basin 362.859 thousand people lived in the Brest region (including 152.207 thousand people in the city, 205.652 thousand people in rural areas). In the Gomel region there are 324.839 thousand people in (including 224.733 thousand people of the urban population and 118.106 thousand people of the rural population). In the Minsk region there are 335.459 thousand people (213.412 thousand people of the urban population and 122.047 thousand people of the rural popula- tion). In the Mogilyov region there are 18.933 thousand people (7.138 thousand people of the urban population and 11.795 thousand people of the rural population).In the Grodno region there are 0.585 thousand people (all 585 peoples related to the rural population). Modern hydrography of the Pripyat river basin is characterised by wandering, calm, overgrown rivers and many direct reclamation channels, straightened rivers, as well as various reservoirs of natural and artificial origin and swamps.In total, the Pripyat river basin has more than 14.9 thousand watercourses, of which almost 92% are small rivers less than 10 km long. The total length of small rivers is 55% of the length of the entire river network. According to the identification (delination), taking into account the stock data, the hydrographic network in the Pripyat River basin includes 715 surface water bodies, including: 636 surface water bodies (SWB) on watercourses or their parts (rivers, streams, channels) with a catchment area of more than 30 km2 and an average length of 15.9 km; 79 water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, ponds) with a water surface area of more than 0.5 km2 and an average water surface area of 3.60 km2. Lake percentage of the main tributariesof the Pripyat does not exceed 1%, and in the whole basin it is 0.22%. The largest lakes in the basin are Chervonoye (40.8 km2), Vygonovskoye (26 km2) and Chernoye (17.3 km2). The number of reservoirs has increased due to their construction during the drying and land reclama- tion (Krasnoslobodskoe, Lyubanskoe, Selets, and others). Besides lake and river reservoirs, reservoirs of pouring type were built for two-sided regulation of the soil moisture of reclaimed land. Typical reser- voirs of this type are the Big Eagles, Red Square, Golovchitskoe and others. Some of them were cre- ated on the basis of lakes (Pogost, Sporovskoe, Lukovskoe).Typical reservoirs of this type are the Bolshie Orly, Krasnaya Ploschad, Golovchitskoe and others. Some of them were created on the basis of lakes (Pogost, Sporovskoe, Lukovskoe). In the Pripyat river basin in Belarus, only 14.5% of river water bodies and 26.0% of lake wa- ter bodies are close to their natural state. The remaining surface waters bodies were changed in view of various engineering activities. The Pripyat River basin is distinguished by a large degree of land wetness. The Polesye zone is par- ticularly overmoistened, where the share of overmoistened agricultural land on average equals 75%. Melioration systems with a total area of more than 600 thousand hectares, built in Belarus more than 20 years ago, especially those with organogenic soils, currently need reconstruction, restoration and improvement of the technical condition, including improving the reliability of their operation. Within the older systems, moreover, land productivity is 25–50% lower than within systems with a modern tech- nical level. Totally, more than