Turkey
Updated : 20/12/2015
End of the twinning project on the European Bathing Water Directive
Launched in January 2013, the bathing waters twinning project with Turkey was completed in June 2015.
It was coordinated by IOWater on behalf of the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, in collaboration with the Italian Minoprio Foundation, mandated by the Regional Council of Lombardy, and GIP Inter.
The overall objective was to reduce bathingrelated risks to public health, through the integration of the provisions of the new European Directive 2006/7/EC into Turkish legislation and introducing innovations to increase monitoring.
This twinning project involved 35 specialists from French and Italian administrations and institutions that carried out more than 170 assignments on all the health and environmental aspects of bathing.
Capacity building of the Ministry of Health and Turkish Public Health Institution as well as of provincial laboratories and other Ministries and partners was developed and their assignments updated according to the innovations introduced by the new European Directive. The twining project especially helped to:
- Prepare a new classification system for bathing areas;
- Develop bathing areas profiles of their vulnerability to pollution, and an action plan to improve water quality;
- Collect health and environmental data;
- Globally monitor bathing areas, including the implementation of monitoring programs, public information and crisis management, especially in case of the development of cyanobacteria and toxic algae;
- Improve the technical capacity of test laboratories.
A major training program was conducted for executives from the Ministry of Health, Public Health Institution, Provincial Health Departments and partner Ministries and Institutions.
Training of trainers on WFD implementation and development of River Basin Management Plans in Turkey
The General Directorate for Water Management at the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs prepared 25 Action Plans for Basin Protection that, by 2023, should be converted into WFD-compliant River Basin Management Plans.
Turkey has established Basin Management Committees for its 25 river basins. In this context, an EU technical assistance project, in which IOWater contributed to support the Turkish Leader WYG due to its former long cooperation with the Turkish authorities on water management, was undertaken to:
- Train the future Turkish trainers on WFD implementation and the development of River Basin Management Plans;
- Build capacities and ensure the proper operation of the Basin Management Committees.
The training courses were held from October 2014 to May 2015 with the participation of 57 representatives of various public authorities, universities and NGOs. During the training, 9 international training experts, including IOWater staff, provided more than 80 hours of training on the WFD and River Basin Management Plans for a total of 177 men-days.
In this training program, more than 30 hours of interactive ”role play” sessions were also carried and 30 presentations on the EU's experiences in WFD implementation and development of Management Plans were provided as well as 30 hours of exchanges between trainers and participants in plenary sessions. Some field visits were also organized in Turkey.