Water resources in the Eastern Partnership region are increasingly pressured by climate change while, among other problems, suffering from relentless use and large-scale pollution. It is important that water management is strengthened in the region.

In his speech, WG3 coordinator Ruslan Havryliuk welcomes the EU initiative and looks forward to seeing the involvement of the EaP CSF and its National Platforms in this project. He underlines the effectiveness of open environment information for environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources.

Furthermore, Ruslan Havryliuk proposes several components to be included in the project:

• introduction of open access to existing databases for monitoring of surface and groundwater, air, soil, etc. by introducing APIs to these databases and entering them into a single register of open environmental databases;
• conducting regular inventory of major polluting enterprises of surface water, soil and air, introduction of systems for monitoring their impact on the environment;
• mapping of ecosystems and their services using satellite data, dissemination of Copernicus data to the Eastern Partnership countries;
• integration of open national monitoring data with European networks sort of GEOSS, Copernicus, etc.;
• support for citizen environmental monitoring projects (including air and water monitoring);
• promotion of cross-border cooperation in the management of transboundary river basins, dissemination of experience of Ukrainian-Moldovan cooperation in the Dniester river basin in other countries and in other basins;
• introduction of the best methods of water resources management, especially for groundwater;
• creation of a roadmap for the renovation of municipal wastewater treatment systems;
• introduction of assessment river basin ecosystem services and their integration into river basin management plans.

 Read the full speech here.

More about the Programme:

The regional kick off of the “EU4Environment – Water Resources and Environmental Data” Programme is a follow-up project to the EUWI+ and SEIS II projects.

Through strengthening water management and the improved use of environmental data, the programme aims at improving people’s wellbeing in the EU’s Eastern partner countries and enabling their green transformation in line with the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.)

The regional event of the “EU4Environment – Water Resources and Environmental Data” Programme will provide the programme outline and key elements by Implementing Partners and feedback by EaP officials and the EaP Civil Society Forum on current trends and country priorities, including questions on the new Programme.