Sharing solutions with international river basins
ICPDR Danube Watch: The new riverbank at Hainburg
Sharing solutions with international river basins
“The ICPDR is very interested to work with other river basins within our available capacities. It gives us an opportunity to reflect on our situation in light of the circumstances of others,” says ICPDR Executive Secretary Philip Weller.
The ICPDR Secretariat met representatives from the Niger Basin Authority in November to learn from similar challenges and experience.
The ICPDR has had many opportunities recently to expand its international cooperation with other organisations dedicated to improving water management. Commissions representing river basins in Southern Africa visited the ICPDR in July and travelled to Hungary and Serbia as part of a week-long study tour in the Danube River Basin, supported by the German Society for Technical Cooperation. Representatives from the Orange-Senqu River Commission and the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission had two days of extensive discussions at the Secretariat on how the ICPDR is organised and managed. A representative of the Orange River will attend the Ordinary Meeting of the ICPDR in December to discuss future cooperation.
A high level delegation of Chinese representatives from the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers visited the ICPDR and five Danube countries – Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia – in October. The ICPDR presented the management of the commission and the role of the Secretariat and national responsibilities. Danube representatives will participate in events in Yangtze and Yellow River Basins in 2009.
Representatives from the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) visited the ICPDR in November. At the ICPDR Secretariat, the two groups discussed the structure and the management of the ICPDR, and the NBA presented their Sustainable Development Action Plan for 2025. The visit proved mutually beneficial for both the NBA and for the ICPDR. The NBA has a large economic component and the ICPDR can learn much about how to stimulate economic growth.
In memoriam
In the name of the ICPDR, I am writing to express our sincere sadness on learning of the death of sandor Toth.
As you are aware, Sandor was an active and involved member of the Flood Protection Expert Group of the ICPDR and in this capacity brought enormous energy and enthusiasm to the task of improving flood protection in the Danube River Basin. His personal efforts on behalf of Hungary helped raise the profile of this issue to its rightful place of importance in the work of the ICPDR.
As chairman of the Flood EG Sandor was the driving force behind the efforts to improve flood protection in the Danube and in this work he earned the professional respect and acknowledgement of people in all the Danube countries. He was respected not only professionally but also as someone who cared very deeply about the issues he worked on and he used his positive energy to build many close friendships across the borders of Danube countries.
There is a large community of people in the Danube basin who who were deeply saddened on learning of his death and will miss him.
On behalf of this community of people I would like to convey our sincere condolences to Sandor‘s family and friends and at the same time express our appreciation for all that he did to support the ICPDR and the people of the Danube River Basin in achieving improved flood protection and management.
