29th Economic Forum in Krynica
The Europe of Tomorrow, ‘strong’ Meaning What?
September 3-5, 2019
Effective Resources Management – Guarantee of Water Security
By 2050, the world’s population will grow up to 9 billion. As a result, the use of natural resources, including water, will dramatically increase. Climate change, short and long term droughts, floods, water wastage and pollution are just some of the factors that threaten our water security. How can water resources be managed to ensure permanent access? How should society behave in this respect and what should local authorities do? One of the issues to be discussed will be the Ihlet Lifewater Concept Water Pollution Water Monitoring Network’s European part, 11 countries including V4 countries., as a joint water resource initiative, the road to achieving European Unionlevel support.
Moderator: Anna Paluch, Member, Sejm, Poland
Invited speakers
– Alicja Zajac, Senator, Senat of the Republic of Poland, Poland
– Przemyslaw Daca, President, Państwowe Gospodarstwo Wodne Wody Polskie (PGW WP), Poland
– Tuğba Evrim Maden, Hydropolitics Expert, Ph.D, Turkish Water Institute (SUEN, Turkey
– Alistair Boxall, Professor of Environmental Science, University of York, United Kingdom
– Trond Martin Dokken, Executive Vice-President for Climate, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS, Norway
– Thomas Heege, CEO, EOMAP GmbH & Co. KG Headquarters, Germany
Closing thoughts about the panel discussion
“Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
This project, which you saw in the presentation, is a plan for a joint water protection initiative for the water protection of European river valleys. On one hand, the Oder basin, as we know, flows between the Polish, German and Czech borders. These are the countries that are fully cooperating, fully ratified on the basis of the Schengen area, which means that there is almost complete legal agreement as these countries comply with the EU legal order. The next river is the Tisa River, which is located in the territory of Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary and in Serbia respectively. This area is the most complex in terms of legal systems and the additional catchment area mentioned by the Turkish representative is the Maritsa River, which flows through Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria.Here, as you can see, they are countries with different legal systems and have different levels of governmental obligations regarding the management of river basins. This project will be crystallized at forthcoming conferences where I think there is a chance to get support. Because, ladies and gentlemen, only multilateral international cooperation, gives us the chance, with proper care and responsibility, for the nature we give our generation, and to pass on to the next generation, the clean rivers, the safe rivers, to the populations that live along the rivers.
The rivers that are the source of our lives for all of us here on earth. The rivers that fulfill the many functions discussed here, but keep in mind that this is also a source of water for the human population, a source of water for the economy, industry, agriculture. Rivers are the habitat of many plants and animal species, and rivers are the backbone of ecosystems that live and cannot without water.
A sense of responsibility is our role as those who own this earth. To do this in a very thoughtful, predictable, frugal and smart way when they use these natural resources. This is the joint responsibility that lies with us, and no one can pardon us from this.”
Anna Paluch, Member of the Polish Sejm,
Vice-Chairwoman the Parliamentary Committee on the EnvironmentC