Controlling floods and pollution in Europe’s Tisza Basin
IMPACT STORY
A SNAPSHOT
By building on scientific evidence, learning from previous basin experience, and developing tools to support participatory climate-sensitive management, GWP Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), GWP Hungary, and the Government of Hungary laid the foundation for a more inclusive stewardship of cleaner and productive shared waters in the Tisza River Basin, a critical European watershed. This partnership, together with other countries that share the basin, updated the management plan for the Tisza River Basin, resulting in a high-level commitment to integrated water resources management – and EUR 2.2 million being leveraged for flood and pollution control.
The Context
The Tisza River Basin, the largest sub-basin of Europe’s Danube River Basin, is shared by Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Serbia. It provides livelihoods for approximately 12.5 million people through water supply, agriculture, forestry, pastures, mining, navigation, and energy production. The region’s mountain streams, meandering rivers, and floodplains traditionally supported forests, meadows, and fishponds that could withstand occasional flooding, but modern land development brought more settlements and intensive agricultural production that required low and tightly regulated water levels and protection from seasonal floods.
Communities along the River Tisza are at significant risk from flooding. In Hungary alone there are more than 400 communities with 1.2 million people on a floodplain of approximately 16,000 km2 protected by nearly 3,000 km of flood defences. The upper parts of the river experience flash flooding, while the middle and lower parts of the river suffer from very high and long-lasting inundation caused by the combined effects of upstream flows2. And effluent from agricultural, mining, and industrial activities upstream finds its way into downstream water supplies.
Map attribution: Map of Danube River basin and Tisza River sub-basin
Use of the basin’s water and other natural resources had over time resulted in a degraded system, with pollution and the loss of floodplains and wetlands. The riparian countries agreed in 2004 to plan for joint management of the basin. Funding was obtained through the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) for formation of the Tisza Group (ICPDR TG) as the platform for strengthening cooperation, coordination, and information exchange and to ensure the harmonisation and effectiveness of various efforts. A coordinating office in Hungary – The Tisza Office of the Middle Tisza District Water Directorate (KÖTIVIZIG) – was set up to support development of an integrated plan in partnership with ICPDR, GWP CEE, the River Basin Management and Water Protection Department of the Ministry of Interior, the General Directorate of Water Management, different departments of KÖTIVIZIG, and other Hungarian and foreign partners.
The countries worked together to develop the first Tisza River Basin Management Plan, applying the principles of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). The Plan was endorsed at a joint ministerial meeting in 2011. By 2016, the plan needed an update. Over the intervening five years, the countries had gathered valuable data through their monitoring networks. Data revealed ongoing over-exploitation of water resources, water regime modifications, water contamination, and negative effects of a growing number of flood events—all issues that require harmonised, management-integrated actions. Better integration among the policies of the different sectors was needed, because a lack of coordination meant, for example, that agricultural interventions were not aligned with wetland protection, or that dredging for navigation was disturbing vital ecosystems. Overlap of responsibilities at different governance levels compounded these problems.
GWP's Contribution
The ICPDR Tisza Group sought assistance in developing a proposal for a fundable project that would move beyond technical updates to the management plan and toward pressing issues related to transboundary river basin management and flood protection, ensuring the active involvement of basin stakeholders. The proposal, submitted to the European Union INTERREG funding mechanism in 2015, included development of tools and training for practitioners to assess resources in urban areas, methods for including stakeholders in climate-sensitive basin planning, and guidelines for the Joint Tisza Survey. The EU approved the work to begin in 2017, combining the efforts of the General Directorate of Water Management, GWP CEE, and 15 other partners over 2.5 years, with a budget of EUR 2.2 million for JOINTISZA: Strengthening Cooperation between River Basin Management Planning and Flood Risk Prevention to Enhance the Status of Waters of the Tisza River Basin.
The JOINTISZA project’s partners included government agencies, NGOs, and research institutes. Together they developed and agreed on flood risk management measures that supported EU WFD environmental objectives. GWP engaged stakeholders to play a pivotal role in the Tisza River Basin Management planning process. The Shared Vision Planning (SVP) methodology was piloted in the Tisza-Körös Valley Water Management System, with authorities and other stakeholders trained in the approach. A manual was widely shared to guide future stakeholder interactions.
The success of the work led to GWP CEE’s support - with GWP Hungary’s assistance - for the preparation of an application by the countries of the ICPDR Tisza Group for the JOINTISZA 2.0 and LAREDAR projects. These follow-up projects contain elements that can be used to strengthen the cooperation of the Tisza River Basin countries in the field of water management.
“Cooperation itself is very important. Working in collaboration created a more continuous process and more contact with other partners. In the process, sometimes other, new project concepts were generated. And I can say that, through this work, we understand one another better than before.”
- Prof János Fehér, Work Package Leader, JOINTISZA project
Results
In September 2019, marking the close of the Jointisza project, organised by the Ministry of Interior of Hungary, ministers of the five Tisza countries met in Budapest to commit themselves to implement the draft Integrated Tisza River Basin Management Plan (ITRBMP). By signing the Tisza Memorandum of Understanding, the ministers recognised the innovative approaches of the updated ITRBMP that allowed for better integration of flood risk management and climate adaptation, and alignment of the River Basin Management planning cycle with relevant EU legislation.
Representatives of the five Tisza countries have the commitment to continue the project-based cooperation in the Tisza River Basin to enhance the common efforts to focus on questions of flood protection, water scarcity, groundwater issues and plastic pollution among others.
The signing ceremony of the updated Tisza Memorandum of Understanding in Budapest, 2019
What is a GWP impact story
GWP’s activities influence water governance for a water secure world. We measure our impact in terms of enhanced quality of life for populations and increased water-related investment. Our impact stories are our vehicle to tell what is behind those numbers.
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