Tisza River Basin Ministerial Conference

 The event related to the closing of the JOINTISZA project is a high-level ministerial meeting to be organized by the Ministry of Interior of Hungary, which will take place in September in Budapest. The purpose of the meeting is to sign a Tisza Memorandum of Understanding by the ministers of the 5 Tisza Countries in order to commit themselves to implement the draft Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan (ITRBMP) prepared by the JOINTISZA project.

The Tisza Memorandum of Understanding outlines the areas, opportunities and means of further international cooperation on the Tisza River.

Electronic questionnaire for stakeholder involvement in the JOINTISZA project

The General Directorate of Water Management of Hungary, as Lead Partner of JOINTISZA Project, initiated an electronic stakeholder survey for having more exact view on how the interested parties are thinking on the key issues of the Tisza River Basin.

The purpose of the questionnaire prepared by the Lead Partner was to gather the views and recommendations of stakeholders on the SWMIs and measures of the new draft Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan.

All the 5 Tisza countries were active in participation. Altogether 27 answers were received. Several sectors of state offices wrote their priorities and comments, and also a great number of private people and some NGOs also contributed to the final result which will be summarized in a report and attached to the JOINTISZA project final products and can be considered when finalizing the Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan.

Background

Respondents categorized themselves according to the following criteria: in which of the five Tisza countries they live, age, activity (private farmer, crop production, animal husbandry, grazing, forestry, tourism, fishing, water sports). They were asked to indicate the size of the stakeholder group they represent (family level, representing an organization, representing a municipal, or county level decision-making body or national level decision-maker), such as to say if their income derives from industrial, service, agricultural, tourism or administrative activities.

They were also asked about their level of education and if speak one or more foreign languages. Age category also were asked to be indicated.

As part of the work, the most important water management issues were identified, called Significant Water Management Issues, SWMIs, that have the greatest impact on surface water status:

• Pollution by organic substances,

• Pollution by nutrients,

• Pollution by hazardous substances,

• Hydromorphological alterations.

The catchment area of the Tisza River, shared by Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia, is the largest sub-basin of the Danube River Basin.

It is important to achieve "good chemical” and “ecological status" for all surface waters and "good chemical" and "quantitative status" for groundwater, and to prevent deterioration of surface and groundwater bodies according to the Water Framework Directive. Quantity and quality issues are in close relation, although both of them is determined by several factors like floods, excess inland waters, water scarcity, droughts and climate change. It means that the integration of water quality and water quantity issues in the Tisza River Basin is crucial.

In order to take the necessary steps to achieve the above objectives, the five Tisza countries have prepared a draft Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan (ITRBMP) within the framework of the JOINTISZA project.

JOINTISZA - Climate change induced specific water quantity issues

One of the focus themes of the project involved a pilot action on climate change induced specific water quantity issues, which included three major tasks, such as Task 1: Ad-Hoc Task Group (AHTG) activities; Task 2: Elaboration of the Guidance Paper on climate change induced specific water quantity issues to overcome challenges; Task 3: Application of Shared Vision Planning method based pilot action on a selected pilot area.

This Guidance paper is a joint product of the Ad-Hoc Task Group members who were invited from the experts of the Project Partners of the JOINTISZA project to work in the group as well as some internationally recognised external experts were also invited to join Ad-Hoc Task Group.

The Guidance Paper aims to provide a practical document for stakeholders who are going to be involved in the next term river basin management planning in a significantly climate change influenced river basin.

Public Involvement Participation Strategy (PIPS)

The Public Involvement and Participation Strategy (PIPS) was one of the major outputs of the project and covered the aspects of communication, information access and public participation related to the development of the updated ITRBMP. The focus was to ensure that engagement takes place at points where it can influence the planning, as well as to create a supportive social environment for the implementation of the Joint Programme of Measures (JPM).In the preparation of the Updated Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan, the JOINTISZA project was committed to active public participation in the finalisation of the project outputs. The JOINTISZA project applied a so-called Shared Vision Planning (SVP) method, which is one kind of technical solution of the public involvement and participation.

The goal of the ’Train-the-planners' seminar was to improve the knowledge on public involvement of the water management colleagues who had worked on the technical chapters of the Updated ITRMP.

Capitalization of the project

For utilisation of the synergies, cooperation between the two Danube Transnational Program supported projects - JOINTISZA and DriDanube – have been established. The cooperating actions were: JOINTISZA project representatives participated on the Kick-off meeting of the DriDanube project and delivered presentation introducing JOINTISZA and the way of planned cooperation. DriDanube experts provided climatology trend analysis for the modelling work within SVP activity of JOINTISZA. The JOINTISZA contributed with information and data to the institutional mapping activity of DriDanube. JOINTISZA provided a short description of the pilot area and the 1D model used in the SVP process. The document has informed DriDanube colleagues and helped them to coordinate their modelling action with JOINTISZA. Two experts of the DriDanube project joined the Ad Hoc Task Group of JOINTISZA and participated on SVP workshops. Two experts were co-authors of the Chapter 3. Information and monitoring need to address climate change induced water quantity impacts of the “Guidance paper on climate change included water quantity issues to overcome challenges” of the JOINISZA project. JOINTISZA project had cooperation actions with two other DTP projects as well. On the Kick-off workshop of the DanubeSediment the two projects held a joint session where JOINTISZA was introduced in details. JOINTSZA experts participated on the workshops organised by CAMARO-D project.

PET Cup on the Tisza River

The 7th Tisza PET Cup was organized on the section of the Tisza between Tivadar and Záhony with the participation of 16 boats and 320 crew, almost 80 river kilometers. Self-made pylon boat rowing teams and enthusiastic volunteers this time cleared the river from 8 to 10 tons of waste. The participants and the organizers were proud to see the continued work of the Upper Tisza Waste

Works and the proliferation of complementary programs organized in the summer for the seventh year. Although the spring flood waves carry a good supply of waste, there is less pollution in the floodplain areas that have been cleaned up over the years due to rubbish collections in previous years. The event was realized under the patronage of János Áder, President of Hungary, with the support of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (ITM).

The ICPDR (International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River) boat has achieved a high position in the competition, carrying on the tradition of the high performance of the Project Partnership, after the JOINTISZA boat finishing first place last year.

Budapest Water Summit 2019

For the third time Hungary is organizing the Budapest Water Summit on October 15-17, 2019, in Budapest, building on the success of the 2013 and 2016 events. This year's conference, under the patronage of President János Áder, draws attention to the urgency of dealing with the upcoming water crises; Motto: "Prevent the Water Crisis", based on the triple theme of many water - little water - polluted water.

Its specific objective is to identify the necessary steps in the areas of governance, knowledge and technology, financing, regulation and institutional support, taking into account the recommendations made by a number of forums, including the Water Presidents Board.

The timing of the Water Summit between the 2018 Brazilian City Water Forum and the 2021 World Water Forum in Dakar will provide an opportunity to follow up the Brazilian City Forum and prepare for the Dakar Conference.

The event contributes significantly to the water related work of the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank Group and other international organizations.

Like the Water Summits in 2013 and 2016, this time the Co-operative Exhibition for Water Industry will be held to showcase the latest in drinking and wastewater treatment, as well as sustainable, innovative and environmentally friendly water supply and water management solutions.