The very first River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) for the Danube-Prut and Black Sea River Basin District, was approved by Governmental Decision of Republic of Moldova on 3 of October 2018. The plan was initially developed with the support of EU regional project "Transboundary River Basin Environmental Protection (EPIRB)" in 2016 and further updated with the help of EUWI plus East project in fruitful cooperation with main beneficiary Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development (MARDE) and Environment and Agency “Apele Moldovei” (AAM).
The RBMP was prepared according to the approaches and methodology proposed in the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Water Law of Republic of Moldova no. 272 of 23.12.2011. The aim of the Management Plan is to improve the proper use of water resources according principles of WFD. The plan is intended for all authorities responsible for water management – MARDE and its subdivisions as Water Agency “Apele Moldovei”, State Hydrometerological Service (SHS), recently established National Agency of Environment”, Agency for Geology and Mineral Resources, local public authorities, water users, NGO sector.
The core of this plan is the Programme of Measures (PoM), which aims achieving the environmental objectives established for all water bodies and ecosystems (to achieve good status). A key component of the RBMP represents analysis of main pressures and impact on water bodies, which results from the identification of specific problems and their origin, what can include the water bodies at risk of failing to achieve the established environmental objectives. According to EU WFD three major types of pressure are distinguished: point source pollution; diffuse source pollution and hydro-morphological alterations. Costs of implementing PoM were drafted in synergy with ADA/SDC project.
In the RBMP, considerable attention is given to the economic analysis of water use. The use of water resources directly contributes to their impairment and implementing basic principles of WFD for cost recovery. The principle of full recovery of costs for services related to water and the use of aquatic spaces The WFD introduces the concept of full recovery and internalization of costs, including environmental costs and the cost of the resource (opportunity costs) resulting from services linked to the use of water and the sustainable maintenance of a good state of health of the associated ecosystems. The cost of the sustainable use of water and the river area should be met by the beneficiary or the owner of the activity that generates the cost.
In RBMP developing, some gaps in data and information were identified. The main problems face during development of RBMP were: the lack or access to data base regarding volumes and quality of waste water discharges, the lack of monitoring data (quantitative, hydromorphological, ecological and hydrobiological information) for all water bodies, delineation and mapping of protection areas for water abstractions points, poor collaboration and cooperation between national institutions involved in the management and monitoring of water resources, poor experience is development of RBMP and necessity in water management experts, etc. Some of these problems have been partially solved in the EPIRB project and continued in the frame of EUWI plus East project (2016-2020), by organizing trainings and filed expeditions for surface and ground waters and the contributions to improving of existing monitoring system in the line of WFD and national legislation.
The River Basin Management Plan for the Danube-Prut and Black Sea River Basin District supports data management activities and contributed for establishing water information system based on SEIS and WISE principles.
Next steps:
With this important step of the adoption of this first generation of RBMP, Moldova can focus on implementation and deepening this official entrance of the country in a continuous improvement process with the support of EUWI plus East project.
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