20 November 2013
Southeastern Europe Agrees to Intensify Regional Cooperation on Integrated Water Resources Management
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The International Roundtable on Water and Energy Nexus in Transboundary Basins in Southeastern Europe (SEE) convened from 6-8 November 2013, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

rcc8 November 2013: The International Roundtable on Water and Energy Nexus in Transboundary Basins in Southeastern Europe (SEE) convened from 6-8 November 2013, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

More than 80 practitioners and decision makers from the region, in fields related to water resources management and hydropower production, discussed challenges and priority issues related to hydropower development in transboundary basins. This marked the first time these two communities came together to identify areas of cooperation and coordination. The meeting initiated a wider dialogue on the water, energy and food nexus in SEE, as a means to promote sustainable river basin management and identify projects for inclusion in a new phase of the Mediterranean European Water Initiative (MED EUWI). Participants debated ways to reach sustainable hydropower goals in SEE until 2020, in line with the Regional Cooperation Council’s (RCC) SEE 2020 development strategy.

Participants agreed SEE must address the following key issues in water resources management and hydropower production until 2020: cooperation among the water, energy and environmental sectors on the sustainable use of waters; private sector involvement in water infrastructure development; and the introduction of a regional legal and coordination instrument to ensure achieving these goals. Participants called for investigating opportunities to launch a political process under the auspices of the RCC to enhance cooperation in SEE.

During the roundtable, Fritz Holzwarth, German Federal Ministry of Environment, reiterated that SEE as a region has the world’s highest density of transboundary rivers. He stressed that hydropower development requires close cooperation at the river basin, national, transboundary and regional scales to ensure sustainability, as hydropower itself is not an environmentally friendly energy production scheme. Miroslav Kukobat, Head, Infrastructure and Energy Unit, RCC Secretariat, pointing to interdependencies between water, energy and food security at all levels, underscored that failing to efficiently address the potential effects of one sector on another during decision making undermines efforts to achieve sustainability.

The Roundtable was organized by: the German Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety; the RCC; the Global Environment Facility (GEF) International Waters Learning Exchange and Resource Network (IW:LEARN); and GWP Mediterranean (GWP-Med). [Roundtable Press Release] [Roundtable Information Note] [RCC Website] [GWP Med Website]

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