1ST PROJECT STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING

The 1st Project Steering Committee Meeting of the Technical Assistance Project on Preparation of River Basin Management Plans for Six Basins, co-financed by the European Union and Türkiye within the scope of the IPA-2 period of the European Union Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, was held on 9 February 2022 at Ankara Wyndham Hotel. 

The meeting started with the opening meeting of the Director General for Water Management Mr. Bilal DİKMEN. In his speech, Mr. Dikmen emphasized the importance of the preparation of River Basin Management Plans, which constitute the basis for the integrative management approach on a basin basis in Turkey. Currently, River Basin Management Plans have been completed in 11 basins, and studies continue in 8 basins. In addition, Sectoral Water Allocation Plans are being prepared in order to ensure the allocation of water resources at the basin and sub-basin level, plan the future and to meet the water needs of each sector in a fair, efficient and sustainable manner. Sectoral Water Allocation Plans have already been prepared in 6 basins and studies continue in 11 basins.  After Mr. DİKMEN, Team Leader Mr. Jaroslav SLOBODNIK delivered the technical presentation of the Project. In his presentation, Mr. Slobodnik gave a detailed explanation about the activities of the first five months of the project and the following three months. Mr. Slobodnik explained the activities and meetings held in the first five months of the project, and stated that the first period focused especially on data collection and analysis. He stated that in the upcoming three months of the project, stakeholder consultation meetings will be held with the participation of the institutions and local stakeholders in 6 basins and the local institutions will be visited by the project team, and that data collection teams will be assigned to support data collection studies in the basins.

After the presentation of Mr. Slobodnik, a question-and-answer session was held and the meeting was concluded with the closing speech of Mr. Dikmen.

The 1st Steering Committee Meeting of the project was held with the wide participation of more than 140 representatives from central institutions working on water management, local institutions in 6 basins and non-governmental organizations.

The project has started in September 2021 and is planned to be completed in March 2025. The budget of the project is 6,915,000 Euro. The Contracting Authority of the project is the Department of EU Financial Assistance, under the General Directorate of European Union and Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. The End Recipient of the project is the Directorate General for Water Management, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

The consortium consisting of DAI, NFB Mühendislik ve Müşavirlik, Finnish Environmental Institute SYKE, and ACC Danışmanlık carry out the project.

The project aims to achieve good water status in all water bodies in six basins through the implementation of EU WFD (2000/60/EC) and related daughter directives, and to distribute the water needed by the relevant sectors in an equitable, efficient, and planned manner.

Following are the main outputs to be achieved based on the overall objective and purpose of the project:

• Progress will be made on the fulfilment of the Environment and Climate Change Chapter (closing benchmark) through preparation of Six River Basin Management Plans (RBMP).
• Meeting water demand equitably for each sector will be ensured by the preparation of Six Sectoral Water Allocation Plans (SWAPs) based on sharing the benefits of water use rather than on sharing the water itself in six basins considering the effects of climate change and drought analysis.
• Legislation for strengthening the current institutional structure to apply the requirements of basin-specific Sectoral Water Allocation Plans will be prepared.
• Institutional capacity and public awareness will be improved.
• Environmental and Health Impacts of the Implementation of Environmental Quality Standards in Doğu Akdeniz Basin will be determined.

Within the scope of the project, Characterisation Reports, Significant Water Management Issues Reports, Monitoring Reports, Environmental Objectives Reports and the Programmes of Measures, which are significant components of River Basin Management Plans, as well as Sectoral Water Allocation Plans and Strategic Environmental Assessment Reports will be prepared for six basins. As seen in the table below, project activities will cover a significant portion of the surface area, population and water potential of Türkiye.

*The value is provided only for the Asian Side