Groundwater Management in the East of the European Union

Many of us find connections between environmental problems and national or global security insignificant. However, the past years showed growing understanding for potential interdependence between environmental degradation and its influence on widely understood security. Environmental degradation and contamination, transport of hazardous materials, as well as inequitable access to natural resources in transboundary areas increase the probability of conflict and could cause risk to humans or even to an entire nation. The next extremely sensitive problem is the management and protection of water resources in transboundary areas.

The rational utilization of groundwater reserves is essential for our future existence. Our project is supported by the Committee on Science for Peace and Security (SPS) as a Pilot Study on the development of a transboundary water quality monitoring and assessment program between Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine with strong support from the USA and Israel. It is an important initiative of cooperation on monitoring, contamina‑tion migration and water management issues between central and eastern European countries. It is a part of the process of setting up a new strategy for mainstream shared groundwater resources, to reduce the possibility of conflicts and develop a sustainable system of regional stability. Developing this project is part of an integration process of Belarus and Ukraine into European water management system and cooperation between EU and neighborhood eastern countries which would guarantee development and stability in this part of Europe.

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) established in 2000 expresses a general EU policy orientated towards protection, sustainable utilization, and improvement of the quality of water resources within administrative units of water bodies. When Poland signed the accession treaty with the European Union in 2004, it was automatically obliged to comply with tasks specified in the existing European directives. It was for that reason that in 2002, when Poland was preparing for the accession to the EU, Poland transposed the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive into to the Polish legal document concerning the State’s water policy known as the Water Act. Fulfilment of the WFD’s objectives was defined in the Water Act through works of the Polish Hydrogeological Survey (PHS), which was established in 2002 following implementation of the Water Act.

Official history of the Ukrainian geological survey commenced on February 1, 1918 when the Government had approved the charter and staff of the Ukrainian Geological Committee.

A complex of regime hydrogeological observations on water withdrawal, changes in water levels and temperature, and groundwater quality is carried out in 59 group water intakes in 24 Belarusian towns. This is done under disturbed conditions and in natural and slightly disturbed conditions in 102 hydrogeological stations. A supporting observation network is represented by 1,280 regime observational wells.

Lithuania relies exclusively on groundwater for drinking water supply. Under favourable climatic and geological conditions, a thick zone of fresh groundwater forms. Shallow groundwater is contained in quaternary deposits, but because of insufficient resources (quantitative and qualitative) it is used mostly in dug wells in countryside and settlements. Exception is river valleys and sandy plain where shallow groundwater is used for public water supply. Confined groundwater is contained in sediments of different age, lithological and chemical composition. The most productive are 10 major confined aquifers. Available groundwater resources makes ∼3.6 million cubic metres/day.

As a result of the steadily growing water consumption and pollution of the environment, including inland waters, many regions of Earth suffer from a deficit of water with quality required to supply the population and the economy. The recently recorded climate change indicates that half the precipitation total comes from rainfalls with large or even shower-level intensity. This gives rise to quick rainwater runoff over the surface of land, limits the possibility for its infiltration and retention as well as reduces the availability of resources. On the other hand, the development of the economy and the growth of the population cause an increase in the quantity of wastewater and the releases of substances into the environment in a deliberate manner (fertilisation, plant protection and vehicle waste gas emissions) and in an incidental one (accidents, leaks from technical installations). This adds to the ­pollution of the environment and waters and is another reason why the water resources available for humans diminish.

One of the priorities of the national policy on drinking water and its supply is, primarily, the provision of the population with drinking water to meet its physiological, sanitary and hygienic and economic needs.

The area presented in this paper covers the entire podkarpackie voivodship (i.e. province) which is situated in the south-eastern part of Poland (Fig. 1). The area in question is characterised by a highly diversified and complicated geological structure. Its northern part belongs to the Carpathian Foredeep, and the southern part to the Outer Flysch Carpathians. Significant lithologic differentiation of Cretaceous – Palaeogene – Neogene deposits (various proportions of sandstone and shale) and tectonic deformations gave rise to distinguishing the Magura, the Dukla, the Silesian, the Sub-Silesian and the Skole Nappes (Książkiewicz 1972; Żytko 1999) in this part of the flysch Carpathians. The Carpathian Foredeep is filled with marine formations of autochthonous Miocene (non-dislocated) of maximum thickness to ca. 3,000 m (Oszczypko 1999).

In the past transboundary groundwater research between Poland and its neighbors could not be freely carried on because of specific geopolitical condition in the period precedent political transformation in the region of Central Europe as well as establishing a partner relationship with eastern neighbors out of European Union structure. The law established in UE countries apply a duty to start an activity ­covering a gap in this field. It is already known that political borders do not mirror in any way natural environment. Only man made activities regulated by different rules, followed other priorities and sanctioned in different manner could cause that the state of environment on the both sides of a border is not the same. The main task of the scientist on the current stage is to complement the knowledge about environmental conditions in the border area as well as determine state of anthropopression and accompanied change in environment in both sides of the border. The basic issue which has to be resolved prior to the planning and implementation of an effective groundwater monitoring network is the identification of the transboundary flow areas.

The present paper represents the first part of the program on Integrated Environmental Evaluation of Western Buh River Basin (Ukraine and Poland) and it was prepared in the framework of the UNIDO project “Ecological conditions of the basin of the Western Buh River: cause-and-effect analysis and transboundary influence.

The Bug is the fourth biggest river in Poland. It is also important part of water system in Belarus and Ukraine. In these countries the river is called the Western Bug as distinct from the other Ukrainian river – the Southern Bug. The Bug River basin with total area 39,420.3 km² belongs to the Baltic Sea catchment and comprises 20.3% the Vistula River basin. 49.2% the Bug River basin belongs to Poland, 23.4% to Belarus and 27.4% to Ukraine. Polish part of the basin is situated in Lubelskie, Podlaskie, Mazowieckie and Podkarpackie Voivodeships, Belarusian in Brest Oblast and Ukrainian in Lviv and Volyn Oblasts. The Bug River is 772 km long. The spring and 185 km of the upper section are in Ukraine. The middle section, 363 km long, marks a natural border between Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. Remaining 224 km downstream part is in Poland, where the Bug River enters into Zegrzyńskie Lake – an artificial reservoir on the Narew River.

The repositories containing unwanted pesticides are a serious geoenvironmental problem in Poland. Foundation of special objects, later called “tombs”, has began in 1965, when in the regions of southern Poland a relatively small amount of unwanted pesticides as well as their packages were buried directly in the ground. These places were commonly located nearby the stores of the agricultural co-operatives. Because the amount of unwanted pesticides has been successively increasing, in 1971 a ­special “Instruction”, which stated precisely the type of constructions in which such products should be stored, was prepared. The recommended repository included up to several tens of concrete wells with a diameter 1–2 m and 3–4 m deep. Moreover, various military fortifications were used as repositories, from the bunkers of the Second World War to the Prussian and Russian forts of nineteenth century.

Water is of fundamental significance for biodiversity and the protection of water resources is extremely important for the equilibrium in the environment. Water protection is also a key element of human existence; therefore, it is the highest priority under the European Union legislation. In accordance with the Water Framework Directive, water is not a commercial product like any other but, rather, a heritage which must be protected, defended and treated as such. Water is also an element which is related to the artificial political and administrative boundaries. The interest in the issues related to the management of water resources in transboundary areas is a relatively new phenomenon which has occurred over the last several dozen years. In particular, this is connected with the globalisation processes, the development of local governments and the growing rivalry between the different sectors of the economy for the decreasing natural resources. The management of water resources in the context of transboundary areas is much more complex and involves many more factors than the same measures taken in the territory of one state. The problems connected with transboundary waters co-occur with the issues concerning the landscape, ­society and culture and they are also closely related to the political processes unfolding in a given area. In Poland, water management is consistent with the European Union policy in this field. The concept of multi-level management necessitates the existence and cooperation of interdependent networks of a wide range of institutions, such as central and local governments, as well as public and ­private, national and international, non-governmental and many other organisations.

This publication addresses the issue of transboundary water management, with special emphasis on environmental protection of groundwater resources. It includes above all presentations of the outcomes of some of initiatives and projects being lately implemented in the selected countries of Eastern Europe region, as well as introduction to the activities of the relevant institutions. As the supplementary issue, the publication deals with the future perspectives of the cooperation between different stockholders in the transboundary projects, which need to be considered in connection with the issue of resource mobilization. Taking advantage from the experience gained from the work with the international community in Vienna, especially in the framework of the cooperation with the United Nation Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), I was asked to make the contribution to the text, concerning the financial dimension of resource mobilization for environmental projects in Eastern Europe.