River basin planning for the Kura River: Launch of public consultation

Baku/31.01.19/Turan: On 31 January 2019, the"European Union Water Initiative Plus for the Eastern Partnership" (EUWI+) project will gather experts and water actorsto seek their views on the futureof Kura River waters. The meeting will take place in Ganja city, says a press release of the EU office to Azerbaijan.

The EUWI+ projectis working with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azebaijan Republic to startdeveloping the River Basin Management Plan for the Kura upstream Mingechavir dam in line with the European standards.The plan will describe the environmental objectives for the river and the measures to achieve them. As established by the European water framework directive, information and involvement of the public has to be ensured in key phases of development of the river basin management plan. The river basin ( 15315 km2 ) has to provide drinking water for more than 1,628 million people, for agriculture and industirial production playing an important role in the basin"s economy, for hydro power generation (clean energy), and to ensure water environment protection standards for the welfare of the population.

This first consultation forum - gathering 40 local public and private water actors including government authorities, basin organisations, residential and business water users, the scientific community, NGOs, journalists and experts -seeks their views on the main challenges to guarantee water quality, share water resources, secure drinking water, reduce pollution and ensure people"s health.

This one-day meeting gives participants the opportunity tocritically assess the progress of theriver basin plan, identify dissensus/consensus and the main challenges ahead. Thisdialogueis very important becausethe results will be taken into account for the next steps to develop the river basin plan,to enrich objectives, mesures and actions to achieve them.

The technical documents submitted to the consultation will be published on the Ministry website and open for comments from the general public. Citizens can give their opinion by e-mail.

A second consultation phase will be organised on the draft river basin management plan in 2020.

Launched in September 2016 for a duration of four years, the EUWI+ project is the EU"s biggest financial commitment to the water sector in Eastern Partnership countries. It supports the six partner countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) to align their legislation with European policy on water management, with a focus on transboundary rivers. It provides support to the development of a long-term vision of water sector reforms in the Partner Countries.The project is implemented by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and an European Consortium comprising the Austrian Environment Agency (Austria) and the International Office for Water (France). -02D-