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Ministers and minister representatives responsible for water management from the Danube River Basin countries on Tuesday endorsed two updated management plans for the Danube River Basin, and adopted a ministerial "Danube Declaration," according to Romania's Ministry of the Environment, Waters and Forestry (MMAP).
The documents were approved at an online ministerial meeting on Tuesday.
The Vienna-based International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) reported that "two updated management plans for the Danube River Basin have been endorsed in the ICPDR's first online Danube ministerial meeting today. The management plans set out measures for the coming six years to ensure cleaner, healthier and safer waters for everyone to enjoy - an objective as relevant and urgent today as in 2016, when the ministers of the Danube Countries last adopted these two management plans: the Danube River Basin Management Plan (DRBMP) and Danube Flood Risk Management Plan (DFRMP) 2021 updates. Both plans have been prepared as stipulated in the EU Water Framework Directive and EU Floods Directive (...) Ministers and minister representatives responsible for water management from the Danube River Basin countries Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine and the European Union endorsed the management plans and adopted a ministerial "Danube Declaration" at the meeting this morning," reads the release.
Attending the meeting, Romania's Minister of the Environment, Waters and Forestry Barna Tanczos said in the opening remarks that "these two management plans will benefit the environment as well as the 79 million people who call the Danube River Basin their home."
"We will need strong political commitment and guidance to further develop our co-operation to address new challenges such as the implementation of the EU Green Pact and the EU Biodiversity Strategy, plastics and microplastics pollution and climate change in the Danube Basin," he added, Agerpres.ro informs.
The Romanian official also pointed out that Romania, as a downstream Danube country, is very vulnerable to the effects of extreme phenomena: extreme floods and droughts.
In his turn, Chairman of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River Robert-Eugen Szep, a senior official with MMAP, said that "it's becoming clearer than ever just how important it is for us to protect the waters of our shared river basin."
According to MMAP, both management plans are also building on success from respective previous plans from 2015, and in the last six years for example, an impressive reduction of 30% in organic pollution from urban wastewater treatment plants has been measured.
Romania took over the chairmanship of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River on January 26, 2022.
