Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2017 (97. évfolyam)

2017 / 3. szám - MANAGING WATER QUALITY (ONGOING PROJECTS AND FUTURE CHALLENGES) - Heilmann Diana - Fehér János: Strengthening cooperation between river basin management planning and flood risk prevention to enhance the status of the waters of the Tisza River Basin (JOINTISZA)

Strengthening cooperation between river basin management planning and flood risk prevention to enhance the status of the waters of the Tisza River Basin (JOINTISZA)

Diana Heilmann*and János Fehér**

* Water quality expert advisor to the EUSDR PA4

** Freelance expert, Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE)

Abstract

In the framework of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), the countries of the Tisza River Basin committed themselves to continue the joint cooperation, which started in 2004 in the framework of the ICPDR, and renewed their Memorandum of Understanding in 2011 (ICPDR MoU 2011). In addition, in June 2011, the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) was adopted and endorsed during the Hungarian EU presidency including an objective to strengthen sub-basin cooperation. In line with the initiative of the EUSDR, the ICPDR Tisza Group and the countries of the Tisza Basin committed themselves to developing a flagship project to support and intensify the cooperation between water management and relevant sectors in the Tisza River Basin (ICPDR MoU 2011). As a result of the cooperation, the JOINTISZA project proposal was developed in 2015 and 2016, which was deemed successful and received funding from the EU Danube Transnational Programme. This paper introduces the JOINTISZA project.

Keywords

Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan, strengthened cooperation among sectors, Flood Risk Management Plan, strengthened stakeholder involvement, integrated approach.

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INTRODUCTION

Setting the Scene

The River Tisza, as one of the natural assets of Middle Europe, flows from the Carpathian Mountains until it reaches the Great Hungarian Plain and spreads idly in the lowland. The River Tisza is an area rich in biodiversity including nature reserves and national parks. As a unique natural feature of the river, every year for just a few days between late spring and early summer, the Tisza comes alive with millions of mayflies. This long-tailed mayfly species (Palingenia longicauda) is the largest in Europe and called ‘Tisza-flower’ in Hungarian. Just before sunset, the ‘blooming’ of the Tisza, the beautiful bridal-dance of the mayfly begins on the river’s surface.

The Tisza River Basin provides livelihood for many through agriculture, forestry, pastures, mining, navigation and energy production. The past 150 years of human influence, however, have caused serious problems for the basin’s waters. The waters of the Tisza Basin are under the threat of pollution from organic substances coming from urban settlements, nutrients from waste water and farming and hazardous substances from industry and mining. In some cases, changes in land use and river engineering have reduced the length of the rivers (especially of the Tisza) and modified the natural structure of the river, which has resulted in the loss of natural floodplains and wetlands. These changes have led to an increase in extreme events, such as severe floods, periods of drought (particularly in Hungary and Serbia) as well as landslides and erosion upstream (in Ukraine and Romania). Due to these, the Tisza River sub-basin faces very special challenges, which need strong cooperation among countries in the shared river basin as it is also indicated by the EUSDR Priority Area 4 in its Action 2 aiming “to greatly strengthen cooperation at sub-basin level”.

The five countries of the Tisza River Basin - Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine - share not only the beauties of the basin, but also face serious challenges

to be overcome by joint. The overexploitation, water regime modification, contamination and increasing flood events, amplified by the negative effects of climate change, require harmonized, integrated action by countries in shared river basins.

There is a long history of cooperation in the Tisza River Basin. Integrated water management started in the 1970s, when the first complex water management plan was designed. In 2004, the signing of the Tisza Memorandum of Understanding in the framework of the International Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR Tisza MoU 2004) was an important initiative, the aim of which was to jointly develop an integrated river basin management plan for the Tisza River Basin. As the first step, the Tisza Analysis Report was written in 2004, and by 2011, the first Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan (ITRBMP) was completed. Following the finalisation of the first ITRBMP, the participants committed themselves to continuing the work and the countries of the Tisza River Basin renewed the MoU at a ministerial meeting in Uzhgorod, Ukraine on 11 April 2011.

In addition, in June 2011, the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) was adopted and endorsed during the Hungarian EU presidency. The priority area on water quality emphasises that sub-basin cooperation must be strengthened. Activities related to the Tisza river cooperation have been going on since 2013, with the assistance of the ‘water quality’ Priority Area (PA4) of the Danube Strategy.

In order to manage national activities as well as to contribute to the work of the international Tisza Group, -together with the ICPDR and EUSDR priority area on ‘water quality’, the National Tisza Office- was established and ceremonially opened in the premises of the Middle Tisza District Water Directorate in Szolnok in the heart of the Tisza River Basin in November 2014.

In line with the initiative of the EUSDR PA4 Hungarian coordination, the ICPDR Tisza Group and countries of