Bug River Basin: Transboundary Cooperation for Environmental Protection

1. BUGPROJECT Information as a basis to establish transboundary cooperation: The experience of the Bug Pilot Project Małgorzata Landsberg-Uczciwek Voivodeship Inspectorate of Environmental Protection in Szczecin Teresa Zań Regional Water Management Board in Warsaw

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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).

6. 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.

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

8. Pilot Project - objectives • to demonstrate the implementation of the UNECEGuidelines 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.

9. Project realization

10. 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.

11. 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).

12. 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.

13. Identification and review of water management issues • The key steps to formulate information needs are: • identifyingfunctions/uses andproblems/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.

14. Functions and uses of the Bug basin water (inventory+policy)) (++)accordingly important, (+) moderately important and (O)not important of water uses

15. Relations between the functions of the basin, the utilisation of the water and the problems occurring in the basin(inventory, policy and experts assessment) accordingly moderately not important as common concern

16. 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 commonunderstandingof waterquality, • Identifyingthereasons for the problems (lack of properdata), • common criteria for assessment due to differences in legislation and technical possibility of labs.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. Practical implementation of co-operation Surveys and field trips 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.

22. Practical implementation of co-operation Surveys and field trips Exchange of data • The first data exchange between Poland, Ukraine and Belarus conceived on such a large scale which also includes data relevant for water management analysis. ACHIEVEMENTS

23. 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.

24. Practical implementation of co-operation Surveys and field trips How to organise co-operation practically • Respect the differences in legislative systems and levels of making particular decisions and ralities which limit co-operation between countries. ACHIEVEMENTS

25. 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.

26. Summary The realization of the Pilot Project for the Bug River basin opensa 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.

27. 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 implementationshould be gradual but constant.

29. Thank you for your attention