Institutional Support to the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (mesp) and River Basin Authorities cris n° 2008/162-152

1.3Beneficiaries and parties involved

The main beneficiaries are the following:

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  The Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP): this Ministry, which was established in 2002, was given the responsibility for all water resource management issues;
  
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  The Hydro-Meteorological Institute of Kosovo (HMIK): this institute is in charge of acquiring information and data regarding water resources and meteorology;
  
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  The Kosovo Environment Agency is in charge of environmental status monitoring and reporting including the creation and maintenance of an environmental information system; KEPA is also involved in the preparation of plans and programmes for environmental protection.
  

Other partner institutions involved in Project activities, to different degrees, were as follows:

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  The services of Municipalities of the Drini River Basin, especially in the area where the Project carried out pilot activities;
  
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  The water supply companies and irrigation companies in Drini River Basin;
  
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  The fish associations, which provided guidance especially for the acquisition of data regarding fish populations;
  
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  Other Ministries in charge of different aspects of the water sector or of the information system, include: the Ministry of Public Service (MPS), which is hosting the web tools that the Project installed; the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), which is responsible for irrigation; and, the Institute of Public Health (IPH), which is responsible for the potability of water, taken from springs, ground and surface water, and which is used for human consumption.
  

Other institutions involved in the Project were:

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  University of Prishtina;
  
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  Independent Commission for Mines and Minerals (ICMM);
  
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  Water and Waste Regulatory Office (WWRO).
  

1.4Cross-Cutting Issues to be mainstreamed

The Project addressed environmental sustainability in its design and included the participation of minority groups. Serbs and Roma living in the region of Istok and Bosnians from Peja were identified. Their participation in project activities was, however, restricted to informal meetings during the pilot works on groundwater and irrigation system assessment.

1.5Other interventions

The World Bank carried out a water sector strategy in 2005, components of this strategy resulted in the Project‘s ToR. A study for updating the water sector strategy is planned at the beginning of 2010. The Swedish International Cooperation Agency has also completed a study for programming investments in the water sector.

The Swiss Government agreed to support the activities of a Water Task Force (WTF). The WTF in Kosovo is a committee of Government Ministers chaired by the Prime Minister.

It is responsible for improving the situation in the water sector through the development of sector policies and action plans, based on good practices, by financing long- and short-term consultants assisting the Kosovo Government in integrating water related issues in its development policies.

The GTZ supported Hidrodrini, a regional company in Peja, which was established in October 2004 by merging municipal water supply utilities. Hidrodrini became an independent legal entity in mid-2007, and in consequence new water rates were established.

The European Agency for Reconstruction supported the establishment of 24 gauging stations of a new hydrological network in Kosovo. Support was also provided by ECLO to increase the law enforcement capacity of the Municipalities in the environmental sector. In addition, a twinning Project is planned to support KEPA in the implementation of monitoring tasks. Besides, few NGOs support water supply or initiatives for environmental protection.

1.6Documentation available

The most important documents, which were used extensively by the Project, were the following:

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  The Water Resource Master Plan for Kosovo. 1982. (Baza e Hidroekonomisë së KSA-të Kosovës. Atllasi i Hartave. Instituti për hidroekonomi ,,Jaroslav Cerni”, 1983);
  
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  The hydrological reports for the years 1953 to 1986;
  
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  The manual on different aspects of water management, written by Brian Faulkner, including the document on monitoring stations;
  
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  The documentation and the databases prepared by a Project supported by the Swiss Cooperation Office.
  

Data Status Report

At the beginning of 2009, the Project delivered the Data Status Report, in Annex 19 of Quarterly Report Number 3. This provided an assessment of available water information and data gaps that needed to be filled.

Data Catalogue

A Data Catalogue was installed by the Project during 2008. It describes the characteristics and source of available data. It can be accessed through the web at http://siu.rks-gov.net:8080/katinfo.

Important maps and documents produced or updated by the project have also been uploaded in the Project’s website, which is located at www.kosovo-water.eu.

2Intervention

2.1Overall objective

The overall objective of the Project as per the Logical Framework of the EAR approved Inception Report is as follows:

“To contribute to improved environmental conditions of KOSOVË/KOSOVO and water resources managed in a sustainable manner, meeting EU standards.”

2.2Project purposes

The Project’s objectives, contribution and comments, related to the Project environment, are shown in Table 1.

Table : Contribution to general objectives and risks

Purposes	Project contribution	Comments
The technical, institutional and administrative capacity of the Water Department of the MESP in KOSOVO / KOSOVË are consolidated, and their water resource management functions including planning, policy-making and regulation are strengthened.	All Project activities were designed to contribute to this purpose. The WD and HMIK staff has had many opportunities to increase their capacity. However, several tasks, that are entrusted to these institutions, cannot yet be fulfilled without external support	The head of the WD as well as the MESP changed several times, which hampered the project management, policy-making and sector regulations
River Basin District Authorities are established and further developed in a way that they have adopted a participative approach in their policing activities in accordance with “environmental justice”, minorities’ inclusion and gender mainstreaming principles.	A proposal for a subsidiary act was delivered and discussed. The Permanent Secretary of the MESP indicated in October 2009 that the implementation of the proposal will take time. He stated that for the time being governmental authorities are not willing to increase human and financial resources to create new institutions such as River Basin District Authorities.	It was expected that the position of the WD vis-à-vis the River Basin District Authorities would be clarified and the means of verification was the writing of a subsidiary act of MESP.

Figure : Project support of data flow from the field to the public domain

During the Inception Report a Logical Framework was produced. Several changes were proposed and approved by EAR. Project activities were broken down into six results as follows:

Result 1: Water Information System (WIS): the WIS activities are related to GIS, specific databases for controlling, storing and displaying measurement and process data, web-based applications to share the information between institutions and specific groups of users.

Result 2: Surface and Groundwater Monitoring and water bodies’ status assessment: these activities included setting up routine measurements of new parameters such as macro-invertebrates and groundwater parameters, which were not monitored at the beginning of the Project. It also included proposals for the introduction of a system of classification, protocols for sampling and analyses, procedures for quality management and validation processes. These activities are part of the implementation of the first steps of the WFD, especially its Article 5 and Annexes II and V regarding River Basin characterisations and human pressure on water bodies.

Result 3: Modelling tool box for River Basin Management: once data are available, these are utilised for policy- and decision-making for producing river basin management plan or water development plans, including the estimation of water resources, water demands and a water balance. Computer tools are useful to assist in estimating the water balance but also to figure out what are the best options for water management.

To be efficient, this process requires the involvement of planners, decision-makers and water users, because the final outcome is a plan for optimising the allocation of available water and concrete measures to implement this plan.

Result 4 a: Preparation of investment for Water Supply and Sanitation: the Project s’ ToR included the production of ToR for Urban Waste Water. It was decided during the course of the Project that this work should be ToR for an Investment Plan for Water Supply and Sanitation.

Result 4 b: Flood Risk management: a Directive on Flood risk was passed by the EU in 2007. During the inception period it was decided to focus Project resources and work on pilot zones to enable the development of practical methodologies, especially the mapping of risks, using modelling tools, and to discuss the results with town planners. On the basis of experience gained, it was planned to produce a Flood Risk Plan of Drini River Basin, which would provide guidance to replicate this methodology in other flood hot spots.

Result 5: Legislation-institution: during the inception period it was proposed that this component be reinforced with legislation and institutional settings to provide a basis for the improved efficiency of MESP actions. The main aspect to be addressed was the establishment of River Basin Authorities as requested by the 2004 Water Law.

Result 6: Training: training activities are dealing with topics regarding the five above-mentioned results. They also include the planning of training activities and the implementation of specific activities such as study tours, participation in conferences and the assessment of the staff’s ‘skill improvement.