Turkey : Success for three European institutional twinning projects
Updated : 26/03/2015
- Bathing Water Directive
Started in January 2013 for an initial 2-year period, the Twinning project on Bathing Water with Turkey is coordinated by the International Office for Water on behalf of the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, together with the Italian association Minoprio, mandated by the Lombardia Regional Council.
The Turkish legislative framework has been analyzed and its updating is underway, according to the new Bathing Water Directive 2006/7/EC. Simultaneously, 150 staff members of the Public Health Institution of Turkey, in charge of bathing water management, are being trained on the various aspect of the Directive:
- Classification of bathing areas according to their quality;
- Development of profiles for bathing areas, with an Action Plan to improve water quality and manage risks;
- Management of the data flows and development of a database;
- Global monitoring of bathing areas, from the information of the public to the management of crisis situations;
- Improvement of the technical capacities of control laboratories. www.aquacoope.org/turkeybw
- Flood Directive
The project ”Capacity building for the implementation of the Flood Directive” was launched to support the Directorate General for Water Management of the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs in its new coordination mission for better flood risk management in Turkey.
It has been developing for over 2 years with the support of major French and Romanian Public Institutions working on this directive in their respective countries: the Directorate General for Risk Prevention of the French Ministry of Environment (MEDDE), the ”CEREMA”, the National Agency Apele Romane and its Institute of Hydrology and Water Management, coordinated by IOWater.
The project aimed at developing the main tools planned for in the EU Directive:
- Transposition of the Flood Directive (FD) into Turkish legislation and adaptation of the institutional organization;
- Implementation of the 3 preparatory steps for a Flood Risk Management Plan in the pilot ”Bati Karadeniz” Basin. The users were consulted in these key stages. A methodological guidance document was drafted to be disseminated to the 25 other Turkish basins and training activities were tested in three basins.
- Preparation of the National Flood Directive Implementation Plan, integrating economic analysis.
A key moment was the consultation with stakeholders in Karabük on 27 August 2013 on the results of the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) for the pilot ”Bati Karadeniz” Basin for validating the first stage of the Flood Risk Management Plan.
- Water Framework Directive
This twinning agreement on the implementation of the Framework Directive was carried out between September 2011 and February 2014. This project, implemented by the Netherlands, France and Spain, aimed to support the Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs in developing monitoring plans for six pilot basins and a national monitoring plan.
On the French side, experts from the ”MEDDE”, Seine-Normandy Water Agency, ”IRSTEA”, ”IFREMER”, and coordinated by IOWater, contributed to this work.
In 2014, the Twinning project was completed with the finalization of the national plan for the implementation of monitoring programs, including institutional and legislative recommendations in particular, but also an estimate of the costs incurred to harmonize Turkish practices with the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive in the monitoring of Water Bodies.
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