26 May 2015 r.

In March and April, during 9 meetings that took place in those two months, the Flood Risk Management Plans covering the water regions of the Lower, Central and Upper Vistula river, Central Oder and Łyna and Węgorapa were put up for discussion. The great interest in the subject of flood risk management is very satisfactory.

Questions and conclusions submitted during all meetings are later forwarded to the FRMP enforcers. Significant part of the consultations was dedicated to the debate on the threats that occur in individual communes and investments that according to the participants should be included in the coming planning cycle. All motions have been discussed and additionally they were verified, during the consultations, by the representatives of the Regional Water Management Authorities. Once submitted, the motions contribute to individual, additional meetings that serve discussing in detail the opportunities for introducing the measures reported into the six yearlong plans.

During the meetings devoted to the Central Oder, which took place in Opole and Wrocław, the participants discussed issues such as protections in Brzeg, Środa Śląska, construction of Malczyce barrage, retention reservoir in Racibórz and navigability in Poland’s inland water routes. Questions concerned instruments supporting flood risk management, including fees and insurances.

Draft FRMP covering the water region of Łyna and Węgorapa was presented during the meeting organized in Olsztyn on 1 April 2015. Attendees discussed how serious is the threat in Lidzbark Warmiński and what kind of threat level has been laid down in the draft FRMP. Large part of the debate focused on the educational and information campaigns as well as local monitoring and warning systems, which should be continued because of the low awareness in the community and sensitivity to flood-related issues. Other reported problems included the cost of dykes’ maintenance and the beavers living in this area.

The last meeting covering the water region of Lower Vistula took place on March, 19 in Bydgoszcz. Participants voiced the need to update flood risk and threat maps. It was pointed out that the region’s FRMP emphasizes threat in Żuławy, whereby other threatened areas are left out. Hence, a motion was submitted to analyze the problem caused by the banned tree felling in the areas located by the Vistula River. On March, 31 and April, 2 Puławy and Warszawa hosted meetings dedicated to the water region of Central Vistula. Attendees asked about the convergence of the Flood Risk Management Plans and the updated Water Management Plans as well as the obligations of property owners with regard to the buildings’ enhanced sensitivity to the flood threat. FRMP enforcers answered several questions that regarded documents, based on which the areas will be qualified as potentially threatened by flood and the methodology applied during drafting the FRMP.

Hydrology experts were particularly interested in the meetings that took place in the water region of the Upper Vistula, i.e. in Rzeszów and Kraków, on 21-23 April. FRMP enforcers and representatives of the RWMA in Kraków answered questions relating to the threat degrees defined for individual communes and the list of water courses in the region that were covered by analyses. Many questions concerned the proposed legal solutions under the FRMP. Participants asked, which institutions are to finance implementation of the FRMP and what kind of solutions are proposed with regard to insuring lands threatened by the risk of flood. The problem how to define the procedure of restrictions applying to investments located near water courses was put into debate. The meetings in the region of Upper Vistula were the last meetings scheduled for the water regions.