The Danube is on everybody’s agenda

‘Public participation extends to all water users, to non-governmental organisations, such as local and national environmental groups, and to other stakeholders. Key organisations and citizens’ groups likely to be affected by decisions need to be involved. The Second ICPDR Stakeholder Forum was held on 29-30 June in Bratislava under the ICPDR Presidency 2009 of Slovakia. This forum provided an opportunity
to discuss the draft Danube River Basin Management.

“Your Danube, your life – participate and make your stake!” with these words, the ICPDR invited the public to comment on the draft Danube River Basin Management Plan, and many individuals and organisations took their chance. Over 50 individuals filled out the online questionnaire, ten stakeholders sent in-depth comments on different aspects of the draft plan via email and over 70 people participated at the second ICPDR Stakeholder Forum held in Bratislava at the end of June.

Valuable concerns, criticisms, suggestions and comments have been collected and handed over to the ICPDR Expert Groups working on the plan. The experts will now carefully review each comment: some suggestions might already be reflected in the final Danube River Basin Management Plan (see article on page 22), others might be taken into account in the next implementation cycle. For all ideas not considered, an explanation will be formulated and circulated in a ‘Response Paper’ by the end of the year.

Raising concerns. About 80% of the persons who completed the questionnaire would be willing to pay more for good water treatment facilities if the costs were shared by all water users. Also, a ban on phosphate containing laundry detergents would be supported by 80% of the persons. Remarkably, nearly 90% of the respondents support the recreation of wetlands even if it means that some individual properties may no longer be able to be used as agricultural land.

Many issues were brought up during the Stakeholder Forum, such as the clear signal for an intensified dialogue with the agriculture sector, as the impact of agricultural practices on water quality and quantity is not fully taken into account in the current plan. The question was also raised of what the ICPDR is doing to ensure that the provisions of the EU Water Framework Directive are respected in new infrastructure projects all along the Danube. The public made its stake – it is now the ICPDR’s turn to develop and provide answers by the end of the year, when the Danube River Basin Management Plan will be finalised.

Encouraging all voices to be heard. The past months of intensified dialogue have proven to be effective despite the fact that the main stakeholder groups are already actively involved as accredited observers in the ICPDR working structures. Through this dialogue, organisations outside the regular reach were also able to be included. And this is beneficial for the Danube and its tributaries, as underlined by Ania Grobicki, Executive Secretary of Global Water Partnership, quoting an African proverb: “If you would like to go fast, go alone. If you would like to go far, go together.”

Jasmine Bachmann works on public participation in the ICPDR Secretariat, and is the Executive Editor of Danube Watch.