Bez tytulu slajdu

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BUG PROJECT
Information as a basis to establish transboundary
cooperation The experience of the Bug Pilot
Project
Malgorzata Landsberg-Uczciwek Voivodeship
Inspectorate of Environmental Protection in
Szczecin Teresa Zan Regional Water Management
Board in Warsaw
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The Bug River basin is situated in the north-west
part of Ukraine, south-western Belarus and the
central-eastern part of Poland and is within the
Baltic Sea catchment area. The total area of the
Bug basin is 39.4 thousand km2, which is 19.3
of the Vistula basin.
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The area of the basin belongs to the different
administrative regions in each
country. Ukraine 27.4, Belarus
23.4, Poland 49.2 of
total area.
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Transboundary co-operation in the basin
Before 1992
In the agreement between Poland and the USSR on
co-operation in water management (1964), the
countries established monitoring networks on the
bordering part of the river Bug.
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After 1992
Ukraine The agreement between the Governments of
the Republic of Poland and Ukraine on
co-operation in the field of water management on
rivers crossing their mutual border (Kiev,
October 10, 1996).
Belarus The agreement between the Ministry of
Environmental Protection, Natural Resources and
Forestry of Poland, and the State Committee of
the Belarus Republic for Ecology, on
co-operation in the field of environmental
protection (May 20, 1992).
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• Polish-Ukrainian Committee for Co-operation in
  the Field of Boundary Waters
• a working group for planning,
• a working group for protection against
  pollution,
• a working group for flood protection, river
  regulation and land melioration,
• a working group for hydro-meteorology and
  hydro- geology,
• a working group for accidental pollution control.

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Pilot Project

• The Pilot Project under the UNECE Water
  Convention started in January 1997 and
  finished in May 2003.
• The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was
  signed in 1997.

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Pilot Project - objectives

• to demonstrate the implementation of the UNECE
  Guidelines on Water Quality Monitoring and
  Assessment of Transboundary River
• to initiate and/or improve bilateral and
  multilateral co-operation, leading to
  institutional strengthening and capacity building
  under the Convention
• to prepare effective and efficient monitoring and
  assessment programmes which are sustainable in
  the specific economic contexts of the countries
  concerned
• to support approximation to European Union
  environmental legislation in CEEC countries.

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Project realization
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Importance of inception phase

• Important part of the information exchange has
  started
• - the very first approach to the common
  understanding of the transboundary river basin
  management, problems/issues in the Bug basin and
  quality of water (new for each country),
• learning about water policy and willingness to
  use European Union legislation (important for
  Poland),
• political and institutional structure of water
  management in each country.

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Inception phase - lessons learnt

• Necessity to make enough available time for good
  understanding of the Project.
• The river basin approach, integrated water
  management, environmental issues and concerns,
  the principle of public participation.
• Invitation for the right institution and right
  people for cooperation (administrative division
  and political structure).

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Identification and review of water management
issues

• Legislation, national strategy plans and water
  policy (function/uses, problems/issues
  information needs)
• The area of the Bug River basin is covered by
  three riparian countries with different political
  and economic systems. Poland was in the process
  of accession to the EU, Ukraine adapts its
  legislation to the laws of the European Council,
  while Belarus uses a separate legislative system.

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Identification and review of water management
issues

• The key steps to formulate information needs are
  
• identifying functions/uses and problems/issues of
  the Bug basin water and
• relations between the functions of the basin, the
  utilisation of the water and the problems
  occurring in the basin.

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Functions and uses of the Bug basin water
(inventorypolicy))
Water use/function   Belarus Belarus Poland Poland Ukraine Ukraine Common concern Common concern
Water use/function   surface waters groundwaters surface waters ground-waters surface waters ground-waters surface waters ground- waters
Ecological function
Drinking water supply  o o
Industrial water supply   o o o o
Agriculture  o
Fish farms   o o o o o
Recreation and angling 
Transport of sewage 
() accordingly important, () moderately
important and (O) not important of water uses
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Relations between the functions of the basin, the
utilisation of the water and the problems
occurring in the basin (inventory, policy and
experts assessment)
Problems Use/Functions Use/Functions Use/Functions Use/Functions Use/Functions Use/Functions Use/Functions Use/Functions
Problems Ecological function Supply of drinking water Agri-culture Fish-farms Recreation and angling Supplies for the industry Transport medium including sewage Impact on Zegrzynskie Lake
Pollution by nutrients and eutrophication 
Microbiological pollution 
Organic pollution 
Accidental pollution 
High variability of flows 
Flood hazard River regulation, damming and draining 
Pollution by toxic substances 
accordingly
moderately
not important as common concern
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Identification and review of water management
issues lessons learnt

• Difficulties to agree upon the most
  important,functions/uses of the Bug River water
  (ecological?),
• problems/issues - differences in common
  understanding of water quality,
• Identifying the reasons for the problems (lack of
  proper data),
• common criteria for assessment due to differences
  in legislation and technical possibility of labs.

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Report No. 3 deals with the information needs,
selection of indicative parameters and a critical
evaluation of the existing monitoring programmes
in view of fitness for purpose.
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ACHIEVEMENTS
Information on the Bug River basin scale
The Report No. 2 - Identification and Review of
Water Management Issues - can be regarded as the
first step in the development of a River Basin
Management Plan. It describes the river basin,
the functions and uses of the river and its
tributaries, the actual quality status compared
to the requirements of the functions and the main
problems and causes identified from this
comparison.
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ACHIEVEMENTS
Awareness of the information meaning

• The execution of the inventory stage has
  made aware the people responsible for water
  quality assessment, that getting information
  is one of the weakest points of the
  management process.
• The necessity to collect and process data
  from different sectors of economy by river
  basins has arisen.

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ACHIEVEMENTS
Closer to the EU legislation

• Most of the methods and standards used in the
  Pilot Project and set in the Recommendation
  Report are based on the regulations of the
  European Union.

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ACHIEVEMENTS

• Joint study trips, samplings, workshops and
  discussions bring the co-operating people closer
  together within the countries as well as
  internationally. This enhances the quality of
  co-operation.

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ACHIEVEMENTS
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ACHIEVEMENTS
Perspective of further co-operation

• The proposal of the trilateral agreement on
  co-operation in transboundary waters,
• Polish-Ukrainian-Belorusian working group on
  the implementation of the Pilot Project,
• The Pilot Project on implementation of the
  UNECE guidelines for groundwaters,
• Acceptation of the Report No. 3 by
  Polish-Ukrainian Committee for Co-operation in
  the Field of Boundary Waters.

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ACHIEVEMENTS
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Which tasks have not been completed?

• Lack of a trilateral agreement forming the legal
  basis of the Early Warning System.
• Transboundary information collection and exchange
  system.
• Assessment of diffuse pollution, risk assessment
  and toxicological examinations were not
  performed according to the reference conditions
  of the Pilot Project.

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Summary
The realization of the Pilot Project for the Bug
River basin opens a new chapter in the
transboundary co-operation between Poland,
Ukraine and Belarus. This co-operation covers the
whole river basin and its basic assumption is the
close relationship between monitoring and
assessment and water management.
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Summary
It is crucial that the Pilot Project will be
implemented immediately after its completion.
This will ensure that recent experiences are used
in routine monitoring. However the full
implementation of the proposed changes can be
difficult because of financial constraints,
therefore this implementation should be gradual
but constant.
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Thank you for your attention