EWA Newsletter
February 2010
Issue Number 13
Revision of the Directive 86/278/EEC on sludge

Waste water treatment
News

IFAT ENTSORGA 2010

 A new International Executive Master

BHS International Symposium

WATMED 5

Journal of Flood Risk Management

Publications

Environmental Atlas of Europe
EEA annual work plan

Calendar of events
 
31 January 2010
First Call for Abstracts for ISWA World Congress 2010 on 15-18 November 2010. ( more )
Hamburg , Germany
 
31 January 2010
Abstract Submission Deadline for the Third International Symposium on “Role of Hydrology in Managing Consequences of a Changing Global Environment” on 19-23 July 2010 ( more )
Newcastle upon Tyne , UK
 
31 January 2010
Last call for abstracts for ORBIT 2010 on “Organic Resources in the Carbon Economy” on 29 June to 3 July 2010 ( more )
Heraklion, Crete, Greece
 
 
One-day international seminar on “Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Filtration”
Runcorn , UK ( more )
18 February 2010
Conference Water Infrastructure & Services ( more )
Sofia , Bulgaria
 
 
18-19 February 2010
International Conference “Droughts and water scarcity: the way towards adaptation to climate change”
Madrid , Spain ( more )
 
23 March 2010
Drinking Water Quality Conference on “Emerging Contaminants and Advanced Treatment Technologies: How Much Further Can We Go?”( more )
London , UK
 
2-4 June 2010
First Announcement and Call for Abstracts
IWA Specialist Conference “Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants in Towns and Communities of the XXI Century: Technologies, Design and Operation” ( more )
Moscow , Russia

Policy agenda

26-28 January 2010
 CIS thematic workshop organized by WFD working group F on “Flood Risk Management Plans”
 Maastricht , the Netherlands

18-19 February 2010
International Conference “Droughts and water scarcity: the way towards adaptation to climate change”
 Madrid, Spain ( more )

23 February 2010
Meeting of the WFD Strategic Coordination Group
 Brussels, Belgium

15-16 March 2010
Meeting of the WFD working group E “priority substances”
Brussels, Belgium

27-28 April 2010
Meeting of the WFD working group Floods
Brussels, Belgium

5-6 May 2010
Meeting of the WFD Strategic Coordination Group
Brussels, Belgium


Contact us
European Affairs:
Frédéric de Hemptinne

EWA Secretariat
Boryana Dimitrova
 
 
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.
 
Commissioner-designate for Environment

Mr Janez Potočnik, Commissioner-designate for Environment, went to a hearing at the European Parliament on 13 January 1010. Resource efficiency, biodiversity and an effective implementation and enforcement of existing environmental legislation appeared there as the key issues for his mandate.
He was asked by Richard Seeber (EPP, AT) about EU water policy and answered that he did not intend any major renewal of the existing legislation, since it first needed to be implemented. Much legislation existed other than the water framework directive - not everything needed to be settled via that route. The question should be dealt with together with colleagues of other Commission departments, he said.

The European Parliament has adopted on 21 January 2010 a resolution pushing for the adoption by the European Commission of a "Danube Strategy" similar to the EU's Baltic Sea Strategy, which is built on four pillars: wealth, sustainable development, job creation and security. Broad consultations should start as soon as possible with all countries along the Danube and should determine a "governance structure". ( more )
   

First meeting of the Water Intergroup in the European Parliament took place on Tuesday 26 January 2010. The group was set up with the support of Eureau and will help MEPs to consider EU water policies more horizontally, as the European Commission prepares to put its water strategies in line with climate and resource-efficiency policies. As Peter Gammeltoft, head of the Water Unit, DG Environment, put it, this is topical to 3 EU water reviews that are currently underway:
 
  • The WFD implementation and, in particular, the Integrated River Basin Management plans due to be completed by end 2009
  • The review on water scarcity and drought to be tabled in 2012.
  • The climate proofing of existing EY water legislation.
 
 
Revision of the Directive 86/278/EEC on sludge
DG environment organized on 29 January 2010 a stakeholders Workshop on the preliminary results of the impact analysis. A majority of participants agreed on the fact that there is no need for deep changes but some technical updates (option 2 +/- based on the 2003 unofficial draft). Amongst these are:
  • Extend the scope of the directive to non-agricultural areas and liaise with other biowaste
  • Introduce organic pollutant limit
  • Introduce pathogen limits
  • Metal limit values and monitoring
  • Quality assurance scheme

Mr Zambrzycki, the desk officer, told participants that future development will depend on two main drivers:
  • Adoption of conclusions on the green paper on biowaste, which he would expect by mid 2010
  • Restart of the negotiations on the proposed soil framework directive. To this end, DG Environment is preparing a new technical paper to steer up the debates.
In all cases, no official proposal (if any) should to be expected before the end 2010.
 
 
Waste water treatment
 
The Commission sent first warnings to Finland and Sweden on 28 January 2010 for failing to put in place the required infrastructure for collecting and treating urban waste water.
 
 
IFAT 2010
 
The environmental trade fair, IFAT ENTSORGA, the 16th International Trade Fair for Water – Sewage – Refuse – Recycling, will take place from 13 to 17 September in 2010.
 
It is the world’s most important trade fair for innovations and new developments in the fields of water, sewage, refuse and recycling. The event offers an attractive exhibition programme featuring state-of-the-art technology and a broad range of professional services for water, sewage and refuse management.
The European Water Association will organise a one-and-a-half-days International Symposium “Sustainable Wastewater Management New Strategies, Technologies and Innovative Solutions” (14-15 September 2010) ( more )
 
If you are interested to present a poster during the symposium, please do not hesitate to contact us .
 
A new International Executive Master for high level water professionals from water utilities

 How to grasp the specific environmental and social setting of a particular urban area to propose future developments adapted to this local setting? Which methods and tools to offer services that will meet both stakeholders’ and users’ expectations? How to guarantee the technical, social and financial sustainability of your drinking water/sewage & wastewater treatment services? How to manage crisis, be it financial, supply reliability, social….? How to develop effective communication? How to transform environmental legislation and constraints into opportunities? How to play a key role in global water ressources management?
 
To help water utilities to build capacity in addressing these many questions, and to prepare water utilities to the challenges of the XXIst century, the «Water for all» Chair of AgroParisTech, the well-known French research and training institution, has launched a new an International Executive Master for high level water professionals The next 12 month term of the English session of the International Executive Master will start in September 2010. And there are also sessions in French. If you would like to know more about the course, or if you are interested to attend as a water utility professional, please contact: J.A. Faby, course Director at opt@engref.agroparistech.fr .For more information: http://www.agroparistech.fr/-OpT-WaterforAll-.html
 

British Hydrological Society’s International Symposium being held at Newcastle University 19-23 July 2010

BHS is delighted to announce that abstract submission is now open for its Third International Symposium at the University of Newcastle, 19-23 July 2010. ( more )

Journal of Flood Risk Management
  Issue 4 Available Now

CIWEM’s Journal of Flood Risk Management, launched in 2008, provides an international platform for knowledge sharing in all areas related to flood risk. The journal is published in partnership with Wiley-Blackwell and supported by Arup, Royal Haskoning and MWH. Access to all new and previously published articles will be FREE throughout 2009 and 2010 with NO SUBSCRIPTION FEES. To access the journal, submit an article or become a reviewer please visit www.floodriskmanagement.org .
For more information on the journal or submitting a paper please contact Joshua Thompson, Journal of Flood Risk Management Editorial Office, Joshua@ciwem.org .

Volume 2 Issue 4 of the Journal of Flood Risk Management is now available for free online at http://www.floodriskmanagement.org/ . The issue includes an editorial introduction by Prof David Balmforth, Editor-In-Chief, http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122615539/PDFSTART and Slobodan Simonovic, Special Issue Associate Editor, http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122528311/PDFSTART


 
WATMED 5 - 5th International Conference on the "Water Resources in the Mediterranean Basin" organized by Lille1 University  ( more )
The main objective of WATMED5 conference is to create a forum for exchange and debate on the knowledge of water topics and to bring the actors of the water field (researchers, professionals, managers, communities, associations,...) to discuss the challenges encountered in the management and protection of water resources in the Mediterranean Basin.
 
 
 
An EU-Project (Leonardo-da-Vinci - Education and Culture)
 
An EU-Project (Leonardo-da-Vinci - Education and Culture), involving four countries (Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania) shall develop and introduce WACOM (Water Competences Model). It shall transfers the European Qualification Framework (EQF) and the German Reference Model for the Competence Modelling PAS 1093 into the German and European Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the water sector. That enables the identification of the Vocational Education Training needs by employees and learners of required competences and qualifications at specific working places as well as of the improvement of transparency and comparability of VET opportunities and products. The WACOM instrument will define within the water sector the needed competences and qualifications for the different tasks, working places and (groups of) employees. Furthermore, the transfer into other sectors and all European countries is planned and guaranteed by the strong focus on pilottesting, optimization, dissemination, exploitation and sustainable strategies.
 
If there are any Water Competence Models existing in your country, please send information to the DWA German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste, Gabriele Martens, E-Mail: martens@dwa.de
 
 
 
Environmental Atlas of Europe
 
 The 'Environmental Atlas of Europe', a joint project of the European Environment Agency (EEA), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Space Agency (ESA), is a series of short films showing the significance of environmental change depicted in comparisons of stunning satellite images through the years and the different ways people are responding to these changes. ( more )
 
EEA annual work plan


European Environment Agency released its annual management plan 2010 ( more ). As it concerns fresh water, a distinction is made between:
·         Continuing activities in 2010 (WISE and link with data centers, SOER water and pollution, integrate inter-sectoral dependencies for water, etc.)
·         New activities for 2010 (WFD article 18 report, developing an integrated framework to support policy processes together with Eurostat and JRC, etc.)