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The Pollution Reduction Programme was prepared in the frame of the UNDP/GEF assistance to the Danube Programme Coordination Unit. The PRP presents a group of projects and measures that respond to identified pollution and transboundary effects in the Danube River Basin and the Black Sea. Projects for pollution reduction are presented for identified sub-basin areas and for significant impact areas (SIA).

The UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project was launched to reinforce regional cooperation of the Danube countries. It supported the development of national policies and legislation and the definition of priority actions for pollution control. This all to ensure a common approach to the protection of international waters, sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity.

The Joint Action Programme of the ICPDR outlined the specific steps that were agreed to be taken over the period 2001-2005 to achieve the environmental objectives outlined in the Danube River Protection Convention including many large-scale measures to reduce water pollution, to promote nature conservation, to restore ecosystems, and to safeguard the long-term sustainable management of the environment.

Three sub-basins of the Danube are partly located in Ukraine - the Tisza, Prut and Siret basins, as well as part of the Danube Delta. Furthermore, 2.7 million people live in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Basin, which is 3.3% of the total Danube Basin District. Ukraine has been a Signatory State to the Danube River Protection Convention since 1994. The Convention was ratified by the Ukrainian Parliament in 2002.

Slovenia covers a territory of 20,273 km² and is home to just over 2 million people. It is a diverse country in terms of its landscape and climate, since it is located at the meeting point of four major European geographical regions: the Alps, the Dinaric Mountains, the Pannonian Basin and the Mediterranean. 81% of the country lies in the Danube Basin, making up 2% of the entire Danube catchment area.

Located in the Carpathian Mountains, the Slovak Republic shares borders with Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine. Water management in Slovakia is determined by its geographic position on the watershed divide between the Black and Baltic Seas. The Danube and its tributaries drain 96% of the country into the Black Sea.

The Republic of Serbia covers an area of 88,499 km² and includes two provinces: Vojvodina (21,614 km²) and Kosovo and Metohija (10,910 km²); the latter being currently under an international protectorate. Approximately 92% of the country lies within the Danube Basin (accounting for 10% of the total Basin). Of this land, 30% is forested. With more than 90% of Serbia’s renewable water resources originating from outside national territory, international cooperation on water issues is crucial for sustainable water management.

The Danube is very significant to Romania, since the country is located almost entirely within the Danube River Basin. The Romanian section covers almost a third of the surface area of the Basin, and over a third of the river’s length flows through the country. Crucially, the Romanian (and also Ukrainian) Danube is the end carrier of all wastewater discharges into the Black Sea.