17 December 2014 r.

Launched during the conference attended by the Secretary of State in the Ministry of environment, Stanisław Gawłowski, and 150 stakeholders, public consultations on the drafts of the updated water management plans (aPGW) have officially started. For the first time, the plans have been drafted in 2009 and according to the Water Directive, they must be updated every 6 years.

“The main goal of water management planning is to improve the status of the bodies of water. However, we must realise that, as the Framework Water Directive says, water is not a commercial product like any other, but rather a heritage that must be protected, defended and treated as such,” said Witold Sumisławski, President of the National Water Management Authority (KZGW).

In Poland, water management plans are drafted for 10 river basins, i.e. Vistula, Oder, Dniester, Danube, Jarft, Elba, Nieman, Pregolya, Świeża and Ücker.

Scheduled to be held between 25 November 2014 and 26 May 2015, the consultations will offer the opportunity to familiarise with draft documents and to submit comments. Plans and questionnaires for the consultations are available on www.apgw.gov.pl

Currently, Poland is running works dedicated to drafting water risk management plans (PZRP) for river basins and water regions, which are correlated with the process of updating water management plans. The obligation to coordinate the measures with the Framework Water Directive derives directly from the Water Directive. In order to keep the consistency of the documents, lists of flood investments must be identical. Flood risk management plans are prepared for three river basins: Vistula, Oder and Pregolya, and nine water regions: Lower Oder and West Littoral (Przymorze Zachodnie), Warta, Central Oder, Upper Oder, Łyna and Angrapa, Lower Vistula, Central Vistula, Upper Vistula and Little Vistula.

“We must change the way of thinking about flood safety in Poland. It’s always possible that a cataclysm comes that is bigger than we anticipated. Therefore, we must start thinking, acting to manage flood process, so that the river has enough space,” said Witold Sumisławski.

All investments and flood projects implemented in Poland at the moment should be consistent with the measures proposed in the flood risk management plans as well as updated water management plans (aPGW) and Master Plans. We should bear in mind that if they are not consistent with the Directives 2007/60/EC and 2000/60/EC, problematic measures may be stopped or cancelled. Drafts of flood risk management plans shall be available for public consultations as of 22 December 2014 at www.powodz.gov.pl