This project aims to support the countries of the Sava river basin (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia & Montenegro) in their long-term objective of elaborating a Sava River Basin Management Plan.
Background
The Danube Regional Project (DRP) supports and complements the activities of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) to provide and sustain a regional approach to the development of national water management policies and legislation in the Danube River Basin.
This pilot project for the development of a pragmatic Sava River Basin Management (RBM) Plan constitutes an activity within the DRP’s objective regarding the “Creation of sustainable ecological conditions for land use and water management”. The project is based on the outputs and outcomes of Phase 1 (April 2003 to February 2004) in which important data and information on water management and socio-economic issues of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) have been collected in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia & Montenegro. Phase 1 has provided a first overview in quality and quantity of data gaps on WFD implementation, strongly varying from country to country.
Even though several efforts by the Sava countries were undertaken in 2004 and 2005 to fill in these gaps (partly with support of the ICPDR and DRP), many gaps do still exist and some can be filled in the course of this GEF-DRP support. Therefore, this project focuses on sustainable capacity building of national institutions.
Objectives
The objective of this project is to support the development of a Pragmatic Sava RBM Plan until February 2007, while in the long-term (by 2009) a Sava RBM Plan in line with EU WFD requirements and ICPDR guidance should be completed by the Sava countries (facilitated by the Sava Commission). This RBM Plan, together with the related national RBM plans, will serve as the main instruments to start concrete actions with regard to transboundary issues in the Sava river basin and will also constitute the basis for future investments by international and bilateral donors.
The specific objectives of the different project tasks are to:
- Identify the most important gaps of information and capacity to implement the WFD, specifically the Danube Roof Report and the upcoming Sava Roof Report.
- Support the Sava countries in their concrete WFD reporting, addressing selected issues and using different assistance tools.
- Initiate and promote achieving an agreement on key transboundary issues for the Sava River Basin.
- Initiate and promote achieving an agreement on the topics (strategic priorities) of the future Programme of Measures.
- Initiate and support the agreement on the structure of the future Sava RBM Plan.
Ecologic is responsible for the socio-economic gap identification and capacity building in hydromorphological pressures and heavily modified water bodies. In addition, the development of the main transboundary criteria and issues for the Sava river basin, and the development of the strategic priorities of the future Programme of Measures, also fall under Ecologic’s responsibilities.
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