The “European Union Water Initiative Plus for the Eastern Partnership” (EUWI+) project, gathers together the experts and water stakeholders, as established by the European water framework directive, to seek their views on the futur for waters in the Sevan Lake and Hrazdan River basins on March 19 and 21, 2019. The meetings will take place in Hrazdan on March 19, 2019 in Kotayk marzpetaran (Hrazdan t.) and on March 21, 2019, in Gegharqunik marzpetaran (Gavar t.).
In the frames of the EUWI+ project, together with the Ministry of Nature Protection of the Republic of Armenia, we are starting the process of the development of the Sevan Lake and Hrazdan Riverbasin plans. The plan describes the environmental objectives for the river and the measures to achieve them.
These first consultation fora - gathering 50 local stakeholders including in particular governmental authorities, basin organisations, residential and business water users, the scientific community, NGOs, journalists and experts - seeks their views on the main challenges to guarantee the water quality, to share the water resource, to secure the drinking water, to reduce pollutions and to preserve people’s health.
These one day meetings give the opportunity to the participants to give their critically assess on the progress of river basin plans, identify dissensus/consensus and the main challenges for the respective river basins. This dialogue is very important and the results will be taken in account for the next steps of the development of the river basin plans in order to define objectives, mesures and actions to achieve them.
These stakeholder meetings are part a broader process of public consultation of local state and non state actors which lasted from 12 March to 12 April, 2019, where different expertise perspectives, opinions and information will be gathered to enrich the development of the river basin plan and its program of measures.
A short questionnaire and documents available on websites
A second phase of consultation will be organised on the draft river basin management plan in 2020.
Context:
Launched in September 2016 for a duration of four years, the EUWI+ project is the biggest commitment of the EU to the water sector in the EaP countries. It supports the six partner countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) to align their legislation with EU 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 EU Consortium comprising the Austrian Environment Agency (Austria) and the International Office for Water (France).
Background info: