The 5th Ordinary Meeting of the ICPDR was held in Vienna on 28/29 November 2002. It was at-tended by all Contracting Parties and the representatives of the Federal Re-public of Yugoslavia, Ukraine and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The meeting focused on the achievements and the work programme of the ICPDR Expert Groups. Particular attention was paid to the implementation of the EU WFD. The Danube countries clearly committed themselves to respecting at the national level the agreed timeframes to ensure the overall consistency of the work and to prepare successfully the roof report for the year 2003. A new Expert Sub-group on Economics was established to apply economic analysis to water. To ensure progress in the implementation of EU-WFD, the ICPDR Expert Groups reviewed the distribution of tasks between them.
As part of the effort to improve water quality and pollution control in the Danube Basin, the countries asked the responsible experts to negotiate with the detergent industry agreements on the use of phosphate-free detergents. An overview of the ICPDR-approved data on water quality in the Danube River and its major tributaries for the year 2000, including the newly introduced load assessment programme, is given in TNMN Yearbook 2000.
Prevention of accidental pollution was confirmed as the issue especially after the Tisza River spills. To harmonize the prevention policy with other international river basins, the ICPDR adopted "Basic Requirements for Installations Handling Water Endangering Substances”.
Flood protection and control became a pressing issue after the summer floods of 2002. Therefore, the ICPDR decided to establish a Flood Protection Expert Group and charged this body with the task to develop by October 2004 an Action Programme for Sustainable Flood Protection in the Danube River Basin.
ICPDR Delegations also dealt with cooperation with the UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project and assessed its progress. Cooperation with other organisations and NGOs active in the Danube River protection was highlighted as the right way to ensure public participation. The 5th Ordinary Meeting of the ICPDR confirmed the strong commitment of the Danube countries to achieving visible progress in protecting the water environment of the Danube River Basin.

 

The MS Argus

"MS Argus” laboratory vessel changes owner

 

On Tuesday, December 3, the State of Hessen (Germany) handed over to Serbia its laboratory vessel "MS Argus”. The official ceremony took place in the Rhine harbor of Wiesbaden-Schierstein in the presence of the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, the Prime Minister of Hessen Roland Koch and the Executive Secretary of the ICPDR Joachim Bendow. Since 1972, "MS Argus” has been analyzing the water quality of the Rhine, which has improved enormously during the last decades. As a cost-saving measure, the part of the Rhine flowing through the State of Hessen will in future be analysed using the resources of the State of Rheinland Pfalz, which allowed the laboratory vessel to be handed over to Serbia. In Serbia, the ship will be used to analyze the ecological and chemical status of the Danube River and will indirectly contribute to the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.

R. Koch, J. Bendow and Z. Djindjic (from left to rigth) attend the handing-over ceremony

"MS Argus” is not new to the Danube River because it was used during the 3-months Joint Danube Survey organized under the leadership of the ICPDR. During this period contacts between the State of Hessen and Serbia were developed, which led to this outstanding example of international cooperation.

 

Widely travelled guests visit Permanent Secretariat in November

 

On 15 November, an expert delegation from Japan visited the Permanent Secretariat. They were undertaking a ten-day study tour on the Elbe and Danube floods, with two sub-groups visiting various institutions and damage sites at Prague and Dresden, and the third team traveling to respective sites in Bonn, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna and St. Pölten. The teams, composed of experts from the Japanese Society of Civil Engineering (JSCE), various research institutes and the Ministry of Transport in Tokio, were interested in the causes and effects of the August floods in Central Europe, national flood disaster management, prevention and monitoring systems as well as financial aid programmes, river management and public information policies.
On 25 November, an expert group from the Dniepr River Basin visited the ICPDR Permanent Secretariat. Nine biodiversity experts from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus attended a one-week training workshop organised by Zinke Environment Consulting, Vienna. At 2,200 km, the Dniepr is the third largest river in Europe. It is subject to multiple impacts from high industrialisation and excessive river exploitation. In 1999, UNDP/GEF and the Canadian IDRC launched a Dniper Basin Environment Programme which hopes to benefit from the experience in the Danube Basin. The technical experts from the Permanent Secretariat provided their visitors with an overview of the ICPDR structure and activities, with special emphasis on transboundary cooperation, the methodology and results of the Joint Danube Survey and the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in the Danube Region. The UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project team presented its activities. Other institutions visited by the Dniepr group included the Austrian Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, the Institute for Water Quality and the Danube Floodplains National Park east of Vienna.

 

European Water Commissions to facilitate the implementation of EU water legislation

 

There are more than 250 transboundary rivers in the world whose basins are shared by at least two countries. They cover an area of about two-thirds of the continents and host two-fifths of the world population. 15% of the countries depend on more than 50% of the water resources of upstream countries.
Not only Iraq, Paraguay, Congo or Botswana but also European Countries such as Luxembourg, Romania, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Hungary have more than 2/3 of their resources coming from neighbouring countries. Appropriately integrated management of rivers, lakes or aquifers shared by several riparian countries is, therefore, of strategic significance.
Recognizing this, the European river basin organisations such as the international commissions for the protection of the Lake Geneva, the Rhine, the Maas, the Mosel and the Saar, the Odra, the Italian-Swiss Lakes and the Danube have established regular meetings of their executives and key technicians to allow them to learn more about each other’s respective organisations, exchange experiences, compare approaches and methods and develop cooperation.
This year’s meeting took place in Geneva at the end of August, hosted by the Lake Geneva Commission. The ICPDR was represented by Joachim Bendow, the Executive Secretary, and Ursula Schmedtje, the technical expert for integrated river basin management. Topping the meeting’s agenda was the EU Water Framework Directive. The participants discussed the legal and technical aspects of the steps leading to a successful implementation of the Directive. They agreed that international cooperation was the key to success as was early involvement of stakeholder groups in the process of creating integrated basin management plans.