Besides Country Water Partnerships, the Stockholm International Water Institute implements a new project in cooperation with Northern Dimension Foundation in Kaliningrad Oblast, Institute of Economy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management with the support from Stockholm Environment Institute.
Goal of the project "Building a framework for collective action in the management of the transboundary waters in Kaliningrad, Russia, Lithuania and Poland (Baltic Sea region)" is to increase investments into sound management of the transboundary rivers in Kaliningrad Oblast, Lithuania and Poland and promote smart and green growth.
The health of the entire Baltic Sea ecosystem is severely degraded. Pressure from agriculture, energy production, industries and maritime sectors have severely compromised the sea's health, with most areas now affected by eutrophication, hazardous substances, and degraded biodiversity.
Collaboration between the European Union member states and Russia on its shared river basins is critical to tackle the deteriorating state of the common Baltic Sea, but collective action in this part of the Baltic is lagging behind.
The transboundary Neman (Poland, Lithuania, Kaliningrad Oblast, and Belarus) and Pregola (Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast) are two river systems draining into the Baltic Sea where multilateral cooperation is poor and investment in their management limited.
For river basins extending beyond the boundaries of European Union, Water Framework Directive which is the most important water law in Europe, recommends coordination with neighboring non-member states. However, such cooperation between Lithuania, Poland and Kaliningrad was missing during the first river basin planning cycle.
"It is expected that the current project will help to fill in gaps in river basin management and improve transboundary cooperation during the second round of Neman and Pregola river basin management planning", says Dr. Bernardas Paukstys, Chair of GWP Lithuania.
This project aims to build an informal and professional partnership to formulate water and environmental management priorities and investments into an economic framework, recognising green and smart growth potential.
The project is funded by the Swedish Institute and will be implemented over three years (2012-2015).
Source: Stockholm International Water Institute