Water quality sampling on Seversky Donets River,
RussiaThe Helsinki Convention on the
Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and
International Lakes (1992) defines the principles
of management of international freshwaters. An essential
requirement is an accurate assessment of water quality in each
transboundary zone, on which both countries can agree.
The Convention includes such aspects as monitoring and assessment
of transboundary waters; assessment of implemented measures on
mitigation, restriction and reduction of the transboundary impact;
information exchange between riparian countries; and public
awareness of results of observations on watercourse status.
UN/ECE therefore sponsored the development of Guidelines for
monitoring and assessment of the quality of transboundary waters
under the Helsinki Convention. These Guidelines were revised in
1999 and adopted by a Meeting of Parties to the Helsinki Convention
in March 2000. They include the following chapters:
- Identification of river basin management plan
- Information needs
- Strategies for monitoring and assessment
- Data management
- Quality management
- Joint or coordinated action and institutional aspect.
At Mott MacDonald, we successfully completed the Joint River
Management Programme, funded by the European Union, where we
addressed the water quality management and related polluting
impacts in four river basins which belong to more than one country:
the Kura (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan), Seversky-Donets (Russia,
Ukraine), Tobol (Kazakhstan, Russia) and Pripyat (Belarus,
Ukraine). Three of these are included in a group of eight
transboundary rivers selected for a pilot programme directed by the
UN/ECE Task Force on Monitoring and Assessment. The fourth – the
Pripyat River – was included to introduce the application of river
basin management principles, focusing on conservation of the
significant wetlands environment.
Water sampling involving local stakeholders on Joint
River Management Programme
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