News

On Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 December 2017, the ICPDR held its 20th Ordinary Meeting in Vienna. Beside the heads of delegation and representatives of 13 of the contracting parties to the ICPDR, around 85 participants from all Danube countries, observers and invited guests attended this important event.

On 28-29 November 2017, over 120 participants from around 20 countries attended the first International Workshop on Wastewater Management in the Danube River Basin at the Ramada Majestic Hotel in Bucharest, Romania. The Workshop was co-organised by the ICPDR, the International Association of Water Supply Companies in the Danube River Catchment Area (IAWD), the World Bank and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission. The event was hosted by the National Administration “Romanian Waters” and the Romanian Ministry of Waters and Forests.

The Croatian Agency for Inland Waterways in Vukovar hosted a two-day workshop on 28-29th September 2017 with the Mixed Environment Transport External Expert Team (METEET). The objective: to enhance the integrated planning of inland waterways transport (IWT) projects.

VIENNA, 10 October 2017 – A secondary school in Bosnia and Herzegovina has won the ‘International Danube Art Master 2017’ competition. The winner was announced by Susanne Brandstetter, Chairperson of the Public Participation Expert Group of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) at the House of the European Union in Vienna on 9 October.

On 2-3 June 2017 the sixth Youth Parliament of the Sava River Basin competition was held in Belgrade (Serbia). The motto for this year’s competition was “The Impact of Climate Change on the Lives of the Sava River Basin”. 60 students and teachers from nine secondary schools from the Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina attended. The Sava Commission is an observer of the ICPDR.

VIENNA, 29 June – Eighty-one million people in all 14 Danube countries are invited to ‘Get Active for a cleaner Danube’ on 29 June as part of the celebrations for the 14th annual Danube Day.

Vienna, 20 March 2017 - Wastewater from homes, cities, industry and agriculture flowing back to nature without being treated or reused pollutes the environment in many regions. Without proper wastewater treatment we are losing valuable nutrients and releasing dangerous substances. Beside significant threats to human health, the impact on water resources and ecosystems is tremendous.

In 2015 significant parts of the Danube River Basin were affected by droughts which negatively impacted different water-dependent economic sectors, vegetation and the aquatic environment. This is the latest of a series of drought events which occurred in Europe during the last decade.

On 15-16 February 2017, Peter Thomson, President of the General Assembly convened a two-day preparatory meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in order to consider the themes for the partnership dialogues and elements for a "Call for Action" in preparation for the June 2017 high-level United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14, known as the Oceans Conference.

In the framework of the joint EU and UNDP project -“Improving Environmental Monitoring in the Black Sea – Phase II” (EMBLAS) new opportunities for public monitoring of the Black Sea coastal status using so called “ecological sentinels” are developed.