Developing River Basin Management Plans in Ukraine: Insights from Kateryna Mudra and Oleksii Iaroshevych on the EU4Environment Water & Data project

These plans and summary factsheets, were developed with the support of the European Union, with technical guidance from the International Office for Water (OiEau, France) and Environment Agency Austria (UBA).

Let’s talk about it with Kateryna Mudra, Hydrologist and Hydromorphology expert, and Oleksii Iaroshevych, water management Expert, both at Blue Rivers Ukraine.

The river basin management plans are aimed at addressing the significant water management issues, including ‘classic’ ones (pollution, hydromorphological alterations, climate change, invasive spices) and those that are specific to Ukraine, related to the impact of the ongoing war.

Every day, the country's water bodies are negatively affected by pollution with oil products and hazardous substances, many water infrastructure and hydraulic structures, including dams, are being destroyed, leading to the drainage of reservoirs and ponds.

If we look at all the planned measures, the vast majority of them, in terms of number and budget, are for sanitation – waste water treatment plans and sewage network re-/construction. The next major group of measures is river revitalization. In Ukraine, almost 40% of surface water bodies are heavily modified manly because of thousands of reservoirs and ponds and riverbed straightening.

 Unfortunately, there are practically no successful examples of nature-based solutions in the country that could serve as a model.

In 2016, the Water Code of Ukraine was amended to include the following main provisions of EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Flood directives.

The Ministry of Environmental protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine (MENR) then approved a timetable for the development of the River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs), which was chronologically linked to the EU – Ukraine Association Agreement.

By this time, Ukraine already had some experience in developing RBMPs, which was gained through EU-funded technical assistance projects and participation in ICPDR (International Commission on Danube River Protection) expert groups. In developing the different chapters of the Plans, we followed the guidance from EU WFD Common implementation strategy and also drew on the experience of EU countries, especially our neighbors with whom we share common rivers (e.g Tisza, Bug).

The methodological assistance from French, Austrian, Croatian colleagues from the EU Water Initiative + and EU4Environment - Water Resources and Environmental Data programmes were very valuable.

The Plans were prepared in the best possible quality and in accordance with the requirements of the EU WFD, taking into account all constraints, including the war in Ukraine, and were approved by the Government in 2024 (very symbolically, the last ninth Plan was approved on 31 December).

This is our joint achievement and contribution to Ukraine's path towards full EU membership.

Our cooperation with OiEau started a long time ago, first at the level of experts who worked in projects in Ukraine and other countries.

Within the framework of the two programmes mentioned above, OiEau coordinated the development of all chapters of the RBMPs (first Dnipro and later all others) except chapter 4 on monitoring. Coordination was carried out by Philippe Seguin, a professional of high level, intelligent and attentive person.

For us Ukrainian experts, the OiEau was and is the strong and reliable rear guard to which we could always turn and be sure that we would get a quick and professional answer.

It is very important that the support was always there, even when it was not stipulated in the terms of reference.

Now we are starting a new phase - implementation of the Plans, it is a new challenge for us and we hope for further fruitful cooperation with OiEau.