Danube Regional Project bolsters efforts to clean up river. By Entela Pinguli   FUNDING STREAM:Freight companies and fishermen both depend on the sustainable use of the Danube River,which is the target of a new nature protection fund. Environmental groups will have more incentive to address Danube River pollution over the next four years thanks to a USD 1.5 million project intended to clean up the world's most international watershed. The Danube Regional Project has allocate the funds on a competitive basis to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders working at the regional and national levels. The first round of USD 725,000 is available to 11 countries of Central and Eastern Europe - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. The grants will help the recipients to manage projects that directly or indirectly reduce point-and non-point sources of pollution; contribute to overall improvement of the monitoring system; address transboundary or national environmental hotspots; prevent pollution by increasing public awareness; facilitate the flow of information; assist the prevention of accidental pollution; promote production and use of phosphatefree detergents and organic fertilisers; or promote public involvement in decisions affecting environmental quality. The Danube is the Europe's second longest river, extending 2,778 kilometres from its source in Germany to its delta at the Black Sea. Its tributaries come from more than 13 countries with more than 80 million people, which makes it the most international river basin in the world. "The main problem of the Danube basin is the fact that rivers and groundwater bodies all too often end up serving as a direct waste disposal," said Joachim Bendow, the first secretary of the International Commission for Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). The main pollution sources are fertilisers from agriculture, toxic substances leaching from outdated factories and untreated wastewater from households, Bendow said. In addition, there has been a disappearance of wetlands and flood plains that have served to filter polluted runoff into the river. The Danube Regional Project was launched in December by the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environmental Facility (UNEP/GEF). It aims to do its work by strengthening existing structures and activities throughout the river basin. According to Andy Garner, an environmental specialist working on the Danube Regional Project Team, the work should include using policy instruments on agriculture, industry and wetland management along with river basin management tools related to the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive. A primary focus is on increasing community involvement in decision-making, Garner said, noting that almost one half of the USD 12 million in the second phase of the Danube River Project will be for public participation activities. Through its network of country offices, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC)will manage the grants at the national and regional levels. This will entail grants selection, monitoring and result evaluation. Garner said one component of the project, the Small Grants Programme, is a means to build broader awareness of priority problems. "In this way, we hope that the grants awarded will mobilise NGOs to work in their communities and with other stakeholders such as municipalities, industries and farmers and across borders to take action against critical sources of pollution," he said. These national and regional projects should, on the one hand, demonstrate how NGOs can deal with these priority issues and, on the other hand, serve as a catalyst to initiate more actions that will ultimately lead to sustainable ecosystems in the Danube River basin and the Black Sea. Grants at national and regional levels will be selected through a competitive process to be coordinated by the REC with the involvement of independent experts, NGO Danube Environmental Forum representatives, and ICPDR representatives in all the Danube countries. Criteria for proposals will include the likely environmental impact, the extent to which it will involve cooperation with other parties, and the efficiency and feasibility of the methods. National or regional projects will have to raise awareness of national contributions to trans-boundary environmental problems. NGOs are expected to show how sources of pollution affect areas beyond administrative or political boundaries. For more information on the Danube Regional Project, see www.icpdr.org/undp-drp. For details on the grants, search for the NGO Support Programme.   - Entela Pinguli, a grants manager at the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, is in charge of the Danube Grants Project

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