Assessment of Transboundary Groundwaters in South Eastern Europe

1. UN/ECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes Working Group on Monitoring and Assessment Core Group on Transboundary Groundwaters Assessment of Transboundary Groundwaters in South Eastern Europe John Chilton British Geological Survey WGMA, Helsinki, June 2007 Agenda Item 4 (a)

2. Inventory of transboundary aquifers • location, extent and type • uses, problems, pollution sources • status and trends • monitoring activities • legal and institutional aspects • bilateral agreements 1997, led by Zsuzsa

3. Inventory of Transboundary Groundwaters IS Legend : Country which responded to inventory transboundary aquifer indicated by one transboundary aquifer indicated by both SE RU FI NO EE IE LV DK GB LT RU NL BY KZ BE DE PL LU CZ UA SK FR CH AT MD HU SI HR RO PT ES BA IT GE YU AZ BG AM MK AL TR GR

4. Assessments - groundwater • Selective approach for groundwater: • the Balkan region – led by BGS (John Chilton) • the Caucasus and Central Asia - led by SHMU (Peter Roncak) • Meeting of the groundwater core group of the WGMA in Paris in April 2006, hosted by UNESCO • Scope of assessment agreed, questionnaire designed • Approved by the WGMA in May 2006, distributed in July 2006 • Collaboration with INWEB established for SEE region • Workshop in Thessaloniki in April 2007

5. Types of transboundary aquifers Developed for questionnaire

6. Consistent with lakes and rivers Follows DPSIR framework; also consistent with CACENA Main text and annex Annex layout modified from rivers but tries to contain key groundwater descriptors – table rather than narrative SEE Assessment – report content and style

7. * 62 * Alluvial- Sedimentary 63 9 10 11 61 * * 32 * 8 * * * * 12 * 7 * 13 * 1 * 4 * 3 6 * * * 14 . * * * * 33 * 2 5 * * 17 15 * 34 16 * 31 * * * 35 65 64 * * * 18 * * * * 36 * * 30 * 19 * * 37 29 20 * 21 23 * * 28 * 38 * * * * 27 * * 22 * 26 39 * * 40 41 24 * * 59 60 Karst 57 42 * 53 54 25 * 43 52 55 56 * * 44 49 * * 48 * * * 58 47 51 * * 50 * * * 46 * * Questionnaires received 45 *

8. Regional geology produces two distinct main aquifer types – karstic limestones of the Dinarides and alluvium in the plains of the Lower Danube and tributaries Both are hydrogeologically very vulnerable to pollution and often closely linked to surface waters Groundwater is very important, often providing >75% of total water use and generally dominant for drinking water More than 60 transboundary groundwaters in this region alone, but not all are currently recognised as such by both neighbours SEE Assessment – main features

9. Two aquifer types ← Karstic groundwaters more often like this, and sometimes quite small Alluvial groundwaters more often like this and some very large→

10. ←Vidlic Karst Banat alluvium →

11. General status remains good, little evidence of widespread degradation of quantity or quality, or of transboundary impacts But a few hot spots exist for both quality and quantity May reflect recent history and economic situation ICPDR is an established facilitator for collaboration in water management in the region and was widely referred to Need bilateral agreements for joint identification, monitoring and data exchange and for management Scarcity of data highlighted; some from short-term projects but need more systematic and sustained approaches to monitoring SEE Assessment – main conclusions

12. Final responses and checking from countries – in hand, several received this week Table 1 – what would be most useful to be included? More examples in the main text- but examples don’t come from the questionnaire Anything more/alternative to go in the summaries in Annex1? Ensure consistency between CACENA and SEE reports, but allowing for differences in scale and numbers of groundwaters Combine with rivers and lakes SEE Assessment – remaining queries/tasks

13. Thank you