Fostering multi-sector cooperation over conjunctive surface and groundwater management in the Bug and Neman Transboundary River Basins and the underlying Aquifer Systems: validation meeting

The PPG Validation Meeting of the Full-Sized UNDP/GEF-funded Project on “Fostering multi-country cooperation over conjunctive surface and groundwater management in the Bug and Neman Transboundary River Basins and the underlying aquifer systems” will take place at UNESCO headquarters on 18-19 March 2019.

During the meeting national representatives and experts from the project countries will confirm the final version of the Project Document which will be submitted to the GEF Secretariat.

UNESCO-IHP and UNECE are preparing a Full-Sized UNDP/GEF-funded Project on “Fostering multi-country cooperation over conjunctive surface and groundwater management in the Bug and Neman Transboundary River Basins and the underlying aquifer systems”.

At the PPG Validation Meeting, national representatives and experts from the project countries will confirm the final version of the Project Document prior to submitting it to the GEF Secretariat. The meeting will also serve to present next steps and recall the project preparation process.

The proposed project intends to assist Belarus and Ukraine in joining forces with Poland and Lithuania in order to reach a common understanding of the water resources of the shared basins, of the existing pressures and drivers of change impacting the sustainability of the resources and their dependent ecosystems (in particular increasing climatic variability and change), and to move towards a joint planning and management of the basins.

The project also intends to assist the countries in
1) enhancing the sustainability of the transboundary freshwater resources and dependent ecosystems in the Bug and Neman basins, and
2) coming to an agreement on the policy, legal and institutional reforms, and on the investments that will be needed, in order to improve water security and resilience to the impacts of climatic variability and change.

This will be achieved, inter alia, by pilot testing conjunctive management solutions, and by consolidating transboundary coordination and cooperation.