The Challenges
- A number of activities in the basin - many of which are related to the economy (local or otherwise) - entail various uses of natural resources, including water, which are often conflicting.
- Furthermore, there is a record of unsustainable management approaches in the Basin that have contributed to the degradation of the Basin’s ecosystems and to compromising the sustainable economic development in the region.
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- Unsustainable use of water and other natural resources;
- Hydromorphologic interventions altering the nature of the hydrological system and the supported ecosystems, as well as exacerbating flood incidents;
- Untreated or poorly treated wastewater and unsustainable agricultural practices;
- Unsustainable solid waste management;
- Unsustainable forestry management and deforestation, as well as fishing practices and hunting;
- Unsustainable tourism;
- Non-integrated policies, management schemes and cooperation efforts at national and transboundary level.
- Action towards integrated basin management is ongoing by all Riparians sharing the Basin, but there is still a long way to go, as the Riparians are at different stages of transposition and implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.
- There are international agreements among the Riparians forming the basis for water resources and ecosystem management-related cooperation in each of the Basin’s three lakes. However, so far there has been mostly a unilateral perspective in the management of the shared water resources. There is space for improvement in cooperation when it comes to the preparation of River Basin Management Plans.
- Overall, there is an absence of an overarching basin-wide policy formulation and decision-making framework grounded on scientific data and knowledge. This hinders the design of coherent strategies, legislation and regulations, and prevents the identification of investments which are aligned with the sustainable utilization of the Basin’s water resources and their integrated management.
Read more about the Major Issues, Problems and Drivers in the Drin Basin.
