A programmatic approach to address transboundary water pollution

The GEF Strategic Partnership for the Danube/Black Sea

Emilia Battaglini, The World Bank

GEF Focal Points Sub-regional Workshop – Belgrade April 1-2, 2008

“Dead zones”: coastal water quality and environmental degradation due to the disruption of the global nitrogen cycle and excessive loading of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from agriculture, human sewage, and industry

Water is unusable with hazards to ecosystem and human health while communities lose theirsources of income and food from fisheries.

Shared Water Basin calls for Shared Water Basin calls for economic, policy, and management links among countries - critical for sustainable development in the region

Issues

The GEF Partnership Model

Policy reforms and priority investment projects identified by the Danube River

and Black Sea Regional Programsand supported by the EU

Danube Commission’s GEF UNDP

Regional Project

Black Sea Commission’s GEF UNDP

Regional Project

GEF/WB Investment

Fund for Nutrient Reduction

Objective: Pollution Control and Nutrient Reduction to the Danube River and Black Sea

Program covers all 17 countries of the Danube River - Black Sea basin over the period 2001 – 2010

Builds on more than 10 years of GEF support, from TDA to SAPs implementation

GEF catalyst with $95 million in grants leveraging World Bank loans, government, and other donor resources (1:4 ratio)

Pilot demonstrations through regional projects and 11 single-country investments for nutrient reduction in the agriculture, municipal sewage, industrial sectors and to trap nutrients in restored floodplains

Achievements - 1

Achievements - 2

Cost effective ways of reversing coastal dead zones with potential annual reductions of 15,645 tonnes of nitrogen and 5,050 tonnes of phosphorus.

Outcomes are favorable in terms of on-site effectiveness, multi-country cooperation even in times of armed conflict, and in terms of Black Sea recovery: improved water quality, less oxygen depletion, and improved biodiversity/fisheries to support local communities.

Nutrient emissions to the Danube have been substantially reduced over the last 15 years (nitrogen emissions have decreased by about 20% and phosphorus by almost 50%).

This has been reflected in the upper/middle reaches of the River, where nutrient concentrations clearly diminished during the early 2000s.

Achievements - 3

EU highlighted the Danube Programme as a model for transboundary waters governance in its report to the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development in April 2005.

All countries and partners acknowledge the catalytic role of the pilot projects in focusing national awareness on the needed technology to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution.

Ultimately, the GEF-funded actions in the Danube-Black Sea basin demonstrate how countries can work together to reduce land-based pollution and Dead Zones. GEF Partnership provides a strong model for reducing Dead Zones across the planet.

The cost of inaction is high; delaying action just costs more in the long run.

Achievements - 4