RHINE-MEUSE
A Transboundary Scientific Cooperation
A good example of an approach to the study of Moselle and Sarre rivers
High decreases in dissolved oxygen content have been observed these last few years in the Sarre and especially in the Moselle. They occurred in low water periods, during summer, and were accompanied by the sudden disappearance of planktonic algae. These had not been seen before.
Beyond borders, the technical organizations of all countries concerned have been cooperating since 1961 within International Commissions for the protection of Moselle and Sarre rivers (CIPMS).
The first investigations led to:
outline the geographic extent of the problem,
observe that our present knowledge is insufficient to check whether the actions of pollution control that have started are enough to sufficiently improve the situation and to decide on possible additional actions.
The partners have agreed on the necessity for a 3-year research programme, the implementation and coordination of which was entrusted to the International Water Centre (NANCIE), whose multidisciplinary competence is well-known.
German, French and Belgian research teams, specialized in modelling, biology and hydrology, are involved in this programme.
The States also strengthened the routine measurements made in these watercourses. The Rhineland-Palatinate Lander made its laboratory boat available.
This cooperation is a good example of the management of transboundary watercourses.
The mutual skills of the teams involved and technology transfer have demonstrated the importance of developing this type of partnership regarding scientific as well as cultural and political aspects.
The results of this work should be available in 1997. The expertise capacity and experience that developed during this project can be used in other geographic areas that face the same difficulties.
Jean-Pierre Schmitt,
Jean-Pierre Schmitt
NANCIE
Daniel Assfeld
Secretary to CIPMS
Fax : (33-3) 83 15 87 99
RHINE-MEUSE
International Commission for the Protection of Meuse River
The Rhine-Meuse River Basin Committee commits itself
Keeping up with the spirit of Helsinki Agreement of March 17, 1992, an international cooperation agreement was signed on April 26, 1994 in Charleville-Mezieres (France) for protecting the Meuse, thus creating an International Commission.
One of the original aspects of this agreement is that the signatories to this agreement are the Belgian Regions and not the Federal Realm of Belgium, at the side of the French Republic and Kingdom of the Netherlands.
It is the first international agreement that commits the Belgian Regions, due to the recent changes in the Constitution.
Another important aspect to be noted is that one of the signatories to this agreement, the Brussels-Capital Region, is not located in the Meuse River basin but almost a third of its inhabitants drink Meuse water.
Due to these particularities, local decision-makers and economic actors-water users had to be associated to the Commission on the French side.
The Rhine-Meuse River Basin Committee, real local water parliament, fitted the bill. Therefore, the French delegation comprises two personalities chosen by the Rhine-Meuse River Basin Committee in addition to its Chairman at the side of State representatives.
This experience in international cooperation is not new for the Rhine-Meuse river basin, as it has been involved for several decades in international work regarding the protection of the Rhine, Moselle and Sarre rivers.
Claude Gaillard
Chairman of the Rhine-Meuse River Basin Committee
Fax : (33-3) 87 60 49 85
ADOUR-GARONNE
A Common Technical Mission between " Electricity of France " and the Water Agency.
In 1991, "Electricity of France" (EDF) and Adour-Garonne Water Agency signed a partnership agreement for sharing the management of the basin resources and especially planned to:
adapt the equipment and management of some hydroelectric installations of EDF, in order to find medium-term solutions for recharging the low water flow in a few bad sections of the basin by relay-reservoir discharges.
establish the conditions for EDF to provide the Agency with its technical and scientific skills related to the Agency field of action.
An original organization
The establishment of a Common Technical Mission (CTM) EDF-Water Agency is certainly one of the most innovating aspects of this agreement.
In reality, its action covers the following topics:
Comparison of water needs with available resources to carry out discharges of relay-storage reservoirs,
Execution and coordination of the studies decided in common. CTM can act as a common office by directly carrying out studies.
Role of observer and watcher.
The Common Technical Mission is a joint team making decisons with one accord. It is composed of representatives of both organizations and of a full-time EDF engineer on secondment to the Agency who coordinates, organizes and manages activities on his own and with impartiality.
The financial means necessary for the good running of this structure and for the implementation of its programme are equally provided by both organizations.
A rich and diversified activity
The covenant between EDF and the Agency was signed at a time when a serious drought hit the Adour-Garonne Basin. So this agreement first dealt with low water replenishment and water resources mobilization.
Some changes have occurred since. It was particularly the case of the water law of January 3, 1992 which dealt with the preparation of the Masterplan for Water Development and Management (SDAGE).
Within this framework, CTM saw its field of action widened by taking into account the qualitative and ecological aspects of aquatic media.
Among the main topics which were discussed, agreements on reservoir discharge, follow up of sluicing and flushing of dams, or also the drawing up of plans for the collection and treatment of floating wastes, were retained.
The Common Technical Mission is an original organization, without any equivalent in France. It enables privileged and permanent exchanges between both organizations and ensures the consistency of their action policies.
RHONE-MEDITERRANEAN-CORSICA
Geneva Lake: A Franco-Swiss transboundary cooperation.
Since 1950, French and Swiss specialists have been gathered in the General Union of people of the Rhone and applied themselves to describe the state of the waters of Geneva Lake and of the Rhone, with a view to incite riparian States to control pollution.
The International Commission for the Protection of Geneva Lake Water (CIPEL) was born in 1960 on these foundations. It is an organization that sprung from the will of France and Switzerland to work together for defining and managing the monitoring programme of the largest alpine lake and its watershed.
Furthermore, the international agreement invested the Commission with the responsibility to prepare every year a series of operational recommendations, based on the monitoring of the state of Geneva Lake, to propose trends of action to both countries as regards pollution control.
The role of the Water Agency
The Rhone-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency (RMC) plays an essential role in the Commission:
In the political field
Its Director is an ex-officio member of the Plenary Committee, alternately chaired by a representative of each government, which gathers every year the most important administrative and political authorities of the three Swiss cantons (Geneva, Vaud and Valais) and of the two French riparian departments (Ain, Upper-Savoy). He is also Chairman of the Technical Subcommission for a three-year period.
In the technical field
Specialists from the Water Agency participate in the Technical Subcommission and in working groups.
Thereby, the Agency is in the most favourable position to ensure the consistency of the actions carried out by CIPEL within its action programme on the eutrophication control of the Lake.
In the financial field
Switzerland and France respectively provide 3/4 and 1/4 of the financing. The Agency ensures, equally with the French Ministry for the Environment, the financing of the French share (MFF 2.5) of the monitoring programme. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs bears the French contribution to the financing of the secretariat.
The Agency is the essential relay between local, departmental, regional and even national decision-makers, in order to apply the stated recommendations.
It does so by referring to its action programme and to Geneva Lake Action Plan for year 2000, called ŇLake Geneva, tomorrowÓ which is one of the main components.
Jean-Paul Chirouze (RMC)
Fax : (33-4) 72 71 26 01
SEINE-NORMANDY
The Water Academy
The Water Academy was established in March 1994 on the initiative of the French Ministry for the Environment and Water Agencies. It is entrusted with the organization of a prospective and multidisciplinary reflection on water resources management, while directing a platform for information exchange and for a scientific watch. Its secretariat is run by the Seine-Normandy Water Agency.
The Academy members, chaired by Pr DAUSSET, Nobel Prize of Medicine, have defined twenty or so topics of reflection to be developed in the future.
One of the topics chosen during their meeting in Toulouse on March 1, 1996 is of particular interest to INBO members. It deals with the comparison of experiences gained in river basin organization all over the world. Case studies should be written on INBO river basins from the available documentation. It concerns the analysis of structures and means of action set up in these test river basins (the Rio Bio Bio in Chile, the Rio Doce or the Paraiba do Sul in Brazil, the Valencia Lake in Venezuela, the Rio Grande of T‡rcoles in Costa Rica, the Rio Lerma in Mexico, the Brantas in Indonesia, in Poland, Hungary and Russia) in order to compare them with management experiences which have been existing for a long time in France, England, Spain and the Ruhr.
A first analysis should permit to present, by the end of 1996, a report to be submitted to the reactions of the different actors concerned and which could be used as a basis for a reflection on new trends, encountered difficulties and corrective actions to be taken.
It also seems interesting to thoroughly examine the practices of the industrial sector. This category of water users is one of the first concerned when a water charge system is implemented in a river basin.
Industrial discharges are concentrated and localized. This increases their impact on the environment but make their treatment easier, and industry is in a better position to integrate environmental costs. As an example, industrial discharges in the Seine-Normandy river basin are nearly equivalent to domestic discharges, but 90% of them are controlled as compared to only 40 % for communities which have to cope with the problem of collecting effluents.
The reflection topic that was mostly put forward by the Academy members concerns the relations between water, town and town planning. 23 towns throughout the world have already been studied. The results of these observations will be presented during a symposium at UNESCO on April 10 and 11, 1997.
Pierre Henry de Villeneuve
Seine-Normandy Water Agency
Fax : (33-1) 41 20 16 09
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