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EWA Newsletter
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June – July 2009 – Issue n°9
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Dear readers,
With the receipt of this monthly letter you will not only be well informed about the different activities and initiatives of the EWA, but also of the new events organised by our association. We will also be providing you with interesting inside news directly from the EU capital Brussels
, from the European Commission and the European institutions. The EWA newsletter also gives a good insight into the EWA member associations, into their activities and aims.
We hope that you will agree that the EWA newsletter provides expertise information and therefore proves to be of interesting reading, so that you might want to recommend it further to other water professionals and experts.
The EWA newsletter service is provided monthly and is free of charge.
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EVENTS
16 – 22 August 2009
World water Week in Stockholm (
more
)
Stockholm, Sweden
4-5 September 2009
Innovative Wastewater Treatment Solutions for Croatia (
more
)
Zagreb
, Croatia
7 - 11September, 2009
Membrane Technology
Duesseldorf/Aachen, Germany
20 - 29 September 2009
CIWEM/ASTEE/EWA Conference “Water Framework Directive – Emerging Challenges
”
(more)
Lille, France
29 September 2009
3rd Aquawareness stakeholder meeting (
more
)
Brussels
, Belgium
30 September 2009
"Research on Sustainable Development Indicators: Taking Stock of Results and Identification of Research Needs" (
more
)
Luxembourg
5 – 9 October 2009
Sewer Inspection
Hennef/Dueren (Germany)
6 November 2009
5th EWA Brussels Conference „European Water Management and the Implementation of the Floods Directive“
(more)
Brussels, Belgium
POLICY AGENDA
10 September 2009
deadline to submit a proposal within the CIP-ecoinnovation program (
more
)
14 September 2009
2nd meeting on the preliminary activity on Science-Policy Interface (SPI)
Brussels
, Belgium
15 September 2009
deadline to submit a proposal within the LIFE+ program (
more
)
21-23 September 2009:
CIS conference on Agriculture & WFD and SSG meeting in Sweden
07 October 2009:
Meeting of the WFD Strategic Steering Group on climate change and adaptation
Brussels
, Belgium
08 October 2009:
Meeting of the WFD strategic coordination group meeting
Brussels
, Belgium
27 October 2009:
Meeting of the WFD working group Floods
Brussels
, Belgium
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EWA at the Green Week
The Green Week
is the biggest annual conference on European environment policy. This year the spotlight was thrown on the multi-faceted challenges of climate change.
The event kicked off on Tuesday with a session looking at the adaptation issues and the need to at now before the tipping point.
The sessions throughout the week cover a wide range of topics from the developments in EU policy, to how the world prepares for a low carbon economy, the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, social cohesion, disaster management situations and international security. The week is also looking at how to green the economy, how different regions co-operate and what impact there will be on the water sector.
The European Water Association was presented at the Green Week by Frédéric de Hemptinne (Head of External Affairs) and Paul Horton (Chairman of EWA WG on Climate Change). Whilst the focus is Europe there are a number of presenters from countries outside of the region and on Wednesday there was a very interesting session examining looking at whether the EU, USA and China all share a common interest in tackling climate change.
More about the event your find out
here
.
5th
Annual EWA Conference
The European Water Association is organizing every year in Brussels a conference on a topic linked to the Water Framework Directive and related directives. This brings together more than one hundred high level participants who are either contributors to the WFD Common Implementation Strategy, Brussels water stakeholders or EWA members working on national and regional matters. This year, the conference will focus on Directive 2007/60/EC of 23 October 2007 on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks
This event, organised in cooperation with the European Commission DG Environment, will bring together high-level experts reporting on current flood management issues and initiatives and will end with a panel discussion with all speakers participating. As such, EWA Brussels conference is a unique opportunity to take stock on the progress made with the implementation of EU water policy and the emerging good practice in flood management.
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Biowaste
ON 25 June 2009, the EU Council adopted conclusions about the Green Paper on Biowaste. This issue is partially addressed by Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste, which sets the reduction targets for landfilling of biodegradable municipal waste, and by Directive 2008/98/EC on waste, which invites the Member States to introduce measures supporting separate collection and appropriate treatment of bio-waste. It is worth to note, among others, that the Council recommended considering:
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the need for EU legislation especially in relation to recycling of biodegradable waste by composting and energy recovery in biogas stations with subsequent recycling of the digestate
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other biodegradable wastes suitable for treatment in composting or anaerobic digestion plants as part of the scope of possible future EU legislative proposals as appropriate in order to harmonise concepts and terminology in relation to biodegradable waste.
As a conclusion, the Council encouraged the Commission to continue the impact assessment with a view to preparing, if appropriate, a EU legislative proposal on biodegradable waste by 2010. In particular, the Council invited the Commission to consider the need to stipulate, if appropriate and while respecting the subsidiarity principle and taking into account local conditions:
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measures for the prevention of such waste;
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measures for introducing separate collection of biodegradable waste where necessary to guarantee a high quality for subsequent recycling;
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a quality assurance system, based on the principle of integrated chain management and traceability throughout the process up to the final receptor
Swedish Presidency
Climate change, the marine environment, biodiversity and eco-efficient economy are the issues the Ministry of the Environment will be highlighting when Sweden takes over the EU presidency (See the
press release
).
Climate change - modelling water scenarios and sectoral impacts
The European Commission's Directorate-General for the Environment has launched a call for tenders on climate adaptation for the modelling of water scenarios and sectoral impacts. The objective of this contract is to assess Europe's vulnerability to climate change impacts and analyse adaptation measures with a specific focus on water-related impacts and measures.
The budget is up to 620.000 € (See the
specifications
) .
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Sludge recovery
The EC Commission, DG Environment, has contracted a consultant in order to review the available knowledge on the environmental, economic and social impacts of the use of sewage sludge on land. This information will be used to support an impact assessment on the revision of the Directive 86/278/EEC "Sludge recovery". This is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.
Draft reports have been circulated for consultation.
Key questions are:
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Have all important sources been mentioned in the summary report in the existing knowledge?
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Do you find the baseline projections in summary report 2 realistic?
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Do you have comments on the future risks and uncertainties at EU level presented in summary report 2? Do you foresee other risks and uncertainties that should be considered, either at EU level or in your Member State?
EWA is preparing a set of comments which will be delivered by 27 July.
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DWA offers two seminar in English language
Membrane Technology - September 7 - 11, 2009 (Duesseldorf/Aachen)
Basic elements of membrane technology, mechanical pretreatment, implication of membrane technology, mechanical sludge dewatering, failure problems, methods for cleaning the membranes, cleaning chemicals, permeability, energy consumption-optimisation, membrane filtration in water treatment, microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, membrane bioreactors.
Visits to Europe's largest plant
, the Nordkanal
group wastewater treatment works, measurements in the pilot plant and in the Nordkanal group wastewater treatment works, visit to the membrane activated sludge plant at Simmerath/Eifel, visit to the Duisburg industrial membrane plant (brewery).
Seminar fee 1.100 Euro. Seminar brochure and registration: martens@dwa.de
Sewer Inspection - October 5 - 9, 2009 (Hennef/Dueren)
Execution and evaluation of sewer inspections and the production of rehabilitation concepts with emphasis on the application of the relevant EN standard specifications.
The seminar places the initial emphasis on an overview of the valid and applied sets of rules and standards in Germany, the applied technical standards and also the technical possibilities of a sewer inspection. The second point of emphasis takes into account the perspective of the attendant engineer with regard to planning, engineering supervision and monitoring up to and including the evaluation and production of an economic rehabilitation planning.
Seminar fee 1.100 Euro. Seminar brochure and registration: martens@dwa.de
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Water statistics
Eureau released on 23 May a compendium of statics on the water services sector across Europe. It provides a national profile for each member States and EFTA countries plus a European comparison of key data on water resources, water uses and services.
(
document
)
Bathing water quality – 2008 season
The EEA report shows remarkable improvement of the overall quality of bathing waters in the EU. Compliance with mandatory values (minimum quality requirements) increased over the 1990 to 2008 period from 80% to 96% and from 52% to 92% in coastal and inland waters respectively. From 2007 to 2008 compliance increased both for inland and coastal waters (
report
)
River managers plan a bleak water future for Europe
WWF and EEB released on 29 May 2009 a study on the draft river management plans that are being submitted to public consultation. The evaluation pointed that “draft plans developed so far by Member States are generally putting off major and necessary decisions, providing few mechanisms and little funding to achieve good status for water bodies
”.
(
report
)
HIGHNOON – FP 7 Research Project
This recently started project will evaluate the impact of the retreat of Himalayan glaciers and potential changes in the Indian summer monsoon on the distribution of water resources in northern India. It will use improved regional climate simulations to set up snowmelt and monsoon patterns, and regional models to develop realistic regional socioeconomic scenarios and evaluate water resources. The project is also offering new methods for prioritisation of adaptation measures that can be used as a design tool when choosing adaptation alternatives, particularly for land resources, water resources and food productivity (
more
).
LIVEDIVERSE – FP 7 research project
LiveDiverse is a FP7 project that started in February 2009. It seeks to develop new knowledge on the interaction between livelihoods and biodiversity within the riparian and aquatic contexts. The project involves four case study areas (Costa Rica, India, South Africa and Vietnam), and significant emphasis is placed on the need to engage with a range of social groups and their representatives (governmental and non-governmental) throughout the research activities.
(
more
)
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Editorial team
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