European Union Water Initiative plus for Eastern Partnership

European Union Water Initiative plus for Eastern Partnership Participative River Basin Management Planning NPD SC Meeting 4 July 2018 Presentation of key issues by Yannick POCHON and Yunona VIDENINA (IOWater); EU member state consortium (Austria, France)

Progress and feedback on: 1. River Basin Management Planning for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) 2. Stakeholders participation mechanisms at different basin scales & Awareness rising as key for implementation 3. Data sharing as base for knowledge development and integration 2

Planning&implementing for IWRM: RBM Plan development v Support River Basin Management Planning process based on WFD • • v Assessment of the current status for WFD implementation without delaying the adoption of the first interim RBMPs based on WFD requirements Support and capacity building for the development of a RBMP in Kura River Basin upstream Mingachevir dam by responsible institutions integrating targeted improvement Support coordination in transboundary river basins RBM Plan Implementation v Pilot test on measures implementation in synergy with other projects

ÇHİP-nın Transsərhəd Uyğunlaşdırılması ÇHİP-nın İşlənib Hazırlanması üçün Pilot Hövzə

Progress AZ – Participative RBM planning • Assessment of the needs and identification of priorities in implementation of the RBMPs (Assessment report, March 2018) • Development of new pilot RBMP for the Kura basin district upstream Mingachevir dam - Tendering and contracts for national consultants: • To. R for development of the RBMP for the Kura basin upstream Mingachevir dam (contracting in process) • Draft web-mapping and meta-data catalogue established for water data • Starting Communication and stakeholders mobilisation (Gabirry-Ganikh) and structuring of communication strategy • Workshops: • Data management for IWRM (September 28 -29, 2017) • RBM planning (November 28 -29, 2017) • Workplan 2018 agreed 5

Feedback and Discussion What would be the advantages of synchronising the RBMP in Kura River Basin upstream Mingachevir dam with the Alazani-Iory RBMP in Georgia? How to develop and improve transboundary harmonisation using exiting mechanisms and agreements? How to link with National Water Strategy, organisational and methodology developments ?

2. Stakeholder Involvement and communication v Stakeholder Involvement (RBMP & Transboundary aspects) v Development, regular update and implementation of a communication strategy for RBM Planning and the project visibility v Awareness rising in relation to main issues of the RBMP

Progress AZ – Participative RBM planning • Stakeholder analysis and assessment of stakeholder involvement and public participation mechanisms • Starting Communication and stakeholders mobilisation (Gabirry-Ganikh) and structuring of communication strategy • Draft communication strategy and plan for the upstream Kura river basin (July 2018) • Active cooperation with synergistic projects in the water sector (ENPI SEIS II, GEF / UNDP Kura, etc. ) with regards of stakeholder mobilisation 8

Aim and expected outcomes of the Communicatin Strategy and action plan for the upstream Kura river basin The Communication Strategy aims to support the adoption and implementation of the RBMP, raising awareness and mobilizing different inter-sectorial stakeholders. The Strategy intends to reach: • Improved and more efficient communication, involvement of the stakeholders and the public in the development and implementation of RBMP, • More effective and meaningful sustainable structures and mechanisms established for stakeholder involvement and public participation in the development and implementation of RBMP • Informed, improved and more transparent decision-making in the development and implementation of RBMP in the upstream Kura river basin, through communication, public participation and multi-stakeholder collaboration.

Target groups Communication channels and tools

RBMP development Capacity building =>Stakeholder Involvement => Public Consultations July 2018 Time table & workplan. Information / training 1 Dec. 2018 Basin Characterisation Pressure/ Impacts/ Status 1 Env. object. & monitoring Main water issues Early 2020 Mid- End -2019 Jan –Feb 2019 1 Po. M and RBMP 1 Mid- 2020 Draft RBMP Final RBMP 1 Information on objectives, approach, methodo, output Basin stakeholder meetings/ workshops Public consultation BC BC TS CA Thematic Summary Communication documents BC TS CA Consultation Analysis Significant issues Draft Po. M and RBMP PC PC BC Basin Council meeting PC Public consultation meeting

Basin dialogue platforms: Basin councils/committees France Belarus Moldova

Feedback and Discussion What is possible interaction between National Water Council and basin councils? How to make sustainable the basin dialogue platforms (Basin council)? How to integrate the stakeholder/ public participation in the RBM Plan development and further implementation process?

3. Data Management v To improve the data/information management, the proposal is to: Support organisational aspects for an efficient water data management (data management policy development, agreements for data exchanges, support to metadata production, on-line server management organisation, etc. ) • Support information production for the pilot River Basin Management Plan development v Pilot activities coordinated with water cadastre development v Support to equipment facilitating project objectives • • hardware or software for water cadastre and/or for partners producing data to facilitate data exchanges and access

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Data management Tasks of contractors : -To collect the necessary datasets at the level of the producers; -To work with the data producers in order that the dataset provided are described on line into the metadata catalogue made available by the project; -To copy the raw data made available by each producer on the FTP made available by the project. The corresponding expected results can be formulated as follow: -All datasets used are described in English and in Russian (at least) into the metadata catalogue; -All raw dataset used are available on FTP. The letter of request for data should include the obligation that the data producer provides the corresponding metadata sheet fulfilled. 16

Metadata catalogue

Feedback and Discussion How to make sure we take benefit from the pilot basin experience to strengthen data management at national level ? Who to improve data exchanges ? What is the cost of not sharing data ?

Thank you for your attention! Open for comments and questions Please feel free to contact the EUWI+ team: IOWater, France: y. pochon@oieau. fr and y. videnina@oieau. fr