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The News N° 25
In April 2014, Austria, France and the
Netherlands closed the twinningproject
on the European Flood Directive with
Croatia,whichbecamea full EUMember
State in July 2013.
Adopted in2007, the FloodDirective imposed
its schedule to the four countries participating
in the twinning project. The schedule of the
Directive, which eventually will be synchroni-
zed with that of theWater Framework Direc-
tive, gives the following deadlines for
the
3 stages of preparation of Flood Risk
Management Plans to be developed in
each river basin/unit:
n
Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment
(PFRA) with selection of Areas with
Significant Potential Flood Risk
(ASPFR) byDecember 2011;
n
Hazard and risk mapping of ASPFR
byDecember 2013;
n
Flood Risk Management Plans
(FRMPs), including their Program of
Measures byDecember 2015.
This 16-month project especially focused on
themappingof flood risk in twopriority
pilot areas: the Kupa River in the Black
Sea Basin and the delta of the Neretva
River in theAdriatic Sea Basinwith spe-
cific flood characteristics.
IOWater was responsible for implemen-
ting the training program
that supported
the preparation of the Flood Risk Manage-
ment Plan (FRMP) with its Program of Mea-
sures and associated economic analysis.
Amodel for identifying the data necessary for
preparing the plan was also developed for
dissemination to other Croatian pilot basins.
On the French side, in addition to
IOWater
intervention on behalf of theMinistry of Eco-
logy, Sustainable Development and Energy,
the support of
”CEREMA”,
Center for Studies
and Assessment of Risk, Environment, Mobi-
lity and Development, which has developed
modeling tools suited to theDirective require-
ments for the French Authorities, has been
valuable and appreciated.
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Croatia
End of the twinning agreement
on the Flood Directive
EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE
FRom one conTinenT To anoTHeR
IOWater is implementing, inpartnership
with Ramboll, a technical assistance
project for capacity building of the
Ministry for the Environment of Mace-
donia, inorder todevelopandapply the
legislationonwater.
The project, of a 2-year duration, is fundedby
the EuropeanUnion.
IOWater is in charge of carrying out
2 activities for the improvement of
the legislative framework for water
resources management in Macedonia,
and the development of the 4 first ele-
ments of a Management Plan for the
main basin of the country, that of the
Vardar River,
thanks to the intervention of
two long-term experts on site and assistance
with short-term expert missions.
A thorough analysis of theMacedonian legis-
lation for water management was conducted
to identify discrepancies with the obligations
of the various European water-related Direc-
tives.
Recommendations for amending the texts of
current lawwere proposed and additions will
be prepared later on in the project.
The four initial elements to be develo-
ped for the Vardar River Basin Plan
include:
l
Characterization of Water Bodies in
the basin;
l
Identification of pressures on water
bodies;
l
Mappingof protected areas;
l
Development of aMonitoring Plan.
One of the priority objectives of the project is
also the on-the-job training and capacity buil-
ding of the staff of theWater Department of
theMacedonianMinistry for the Environment.
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Macedonia
Institutional capacity building
and Improvement of Legislation
Moldova
Analysis
of priority options
for water governance
More than twenty years after the break-up of
the Soviet Union, the Republic of Moldova is
still facing considerable challenges.
Formore than 13 years, Swiss Coopera-
tion has supported the development of
innovative and decentralized water
supply and sanitation services. Thanks
to this help, access to drinking water
was improved for more than 40.000
people inMoldova.
In this context,
IOWater
was selectedby
the
Swiss Cooperation Office
in Moldova
(SDC/SCO-M), in collaborationwith the Coor-
dination Office for Technical Cooperation of
the Austrian Embassy (ADA),
in order to
conduct an in-depth analysis of the situation
and present recommendations for action
focusing on:
l
Developing a water information
management system,
that provides
completeand reliabledata to thee-gover-
nance platform,
l
Promoting integrated water resour-
cesmanagement,
according to the pro-
visions of the newwater law;
l
Organizing capacity building and
training
aimed at implementation of a
newly adjusted regulatory framework on
water supply and sanitation.
Coordinated by
IOWater,
2 French and
2 Austrian experts realized a first mission
between14and20 September 2014, inorder
to analyze the situation and identify the prio-
rity needs and concrete actions that could be
implemented in the coming years with
SDC
and
ADA
support on these 3 topics.
Themission reportwas presentedanddiscus-
sedduring a national workshoporganizedon
22October 2014 inChisinau.
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