Water challenges for EU's Eastern neighbours
The European Water Initiative Plus is taking water monitoring in the partner countries to the next level. But there is still a task for them in improving their overall water resources management and especially wastewater management, as an EEA report shows.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) report assesses water availability, surface water quality and water use in the Eastern Partnership countries. The report warns that water pollution will exacerbate in the future by intensified agriculture, industrialisation and urbanization. Particularly, if these developments are not supported by improved wastewater treatment. The main problem in the region’s rivers is the high concentrations of ammonium and phosphate, caused by discharges of untreated or insufficiently treated wastewater and by agriculture.
EUWI+ support to water monitoring modernisation
The European Water Initiative Plus (EUWI+) has played an essential role in preparing Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine for facing these challenges. EUWI+ has significantly improved monitoring competence, infrastructures and processes in the Eastern Partnership countries and reviewed the legal requirements for water monitoring. New river basin management plans have been developed and more or less consolidated. In addition, new field monitoring facilities have been installed to expand the monitoring networks in the partner countries. The newly renovated and equipped environmental monitoring laboratories are milestones towards water quality monitoring and water resource management in line with the European Water Framework Directive.
Taking wastewater monitoring to the next level
In a webinar on 4 November 2020, organized by the Umweltbundesamt, the Environment Agency Austria, in the framework of EUWI+, water sector reforms in the countries were highlighted and remaining challenges, such as the need to establish early warning systems on pollution, were addressed. Main aim of the webinar was to discuss COVID-19 tracing in wastewater.
The participants of the webinar shared information about current research on COVID-19 monitoring in wastewater in Austria as well as in France and the Netherlands. They discussed challenges like data management, analytical uncertainties and feasibility of such a monitoring approach in the EU Member States and in Eastern partner countries. The European Commission has facilitated such work in the Member States through its Joint Research Centre.
About EUWI+
EUWI+ supports Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine in the alignment of their legislation with the European Union's policy on water management, with a strong focus on transboundary rivers. The project provides support to the development of a long-term vision of water sector reforms in the partner countries. EUWI+ is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and an EU Member States consortium comprised of the Austrian Environment Agency and the International Office for Water. The Environment Agency Austria contributes to this cooperation especially specific with its know-how and experience in water monitoring and laboratory development.
