The BSR WATER platform project has successfully kicked-off in Riga last week! Three-day event involved careful planning of the upcoming years of platform project implementation based on the expertise of partners, focuses of involved projects and indicated aims to achieve through the platform cooperation.
The Kick-off of the BSR WATER — Platform on Integrated Water Cooperation was held in Riga on 27–29 November 2018 hosted by the city representing one of the platform partners. The partnership of BSR WATER involves altogether ten important local and regional actors:
- The project is led by UBC Sustainable Cities Commission, which is responsible for the project management, but also communication, outreach and engagement of the BSR actors into the platform activities;
- HELCOM facilitates regional policy dialog on sustainable water management by developing policy recommendations for nutrient recycling and recommendations on hazardous substances;
- Three universities — Technical University Berlin, University of Tartu and Gdansk University of Technology — work on synthetizing content on nutrient and sludge handling, storm water management and energy efficiency for boosting further uptake of recent and innovative technologies in the regional water sector;
- Cities of Helsinki and Riga represent forerunners in implementing innovative water-related solutions;
- SYKLI — Environmental School of Finland supports engagement and awareness raising in the platform;
- State Company “Mineral” and municipal institution ECAT-Kaliningrad coordinate work with Russian stakeholders in the water sector.
All partners represent projects in wastewater and stormwater management, as well as climate adaptation issues, the development of which has been funded by the EU through different funding programmes (Interreg Baltic Sea Region, Central Baltic and South Baltic Programmes, as well as South East Finland-Russia ENPI). Four project involved in consortium have been granted the flagship status from either PA “Nutri” or HA “Climate” for their importance and relevance for the Baltic Sea Region’s sustainable development. The representative of Interreg BSR Programme Elena Kolosova joined the Kick-off to support the discussions with the strategic point of view of the funding programme highlighting in her presentation the importance of capitalisation on single projects by synthesizing their outputs and sharing the experiences.
The process of sharing the experiences and practices that have been developed in each project continued throughout the whole event, both in the context of discussing technological outputs and piloted practices, and for the methods of engagement tested in the projects' internal and external communication. Altogether, the exchange of experiences and new ideas is approached in BSR WATER from two general sides of the project implementation: first, by collecting cases in smart water treatment and management implemented in the Baltic Sea Region, and second, through developing policy recommendations for nutrient recycling and hazardous substances for HELCOM policy work.
During this internal meeting in Riga, the partnership went through the working plan and discussed further implementation of the project, which, in particular, involves participating in and co-organizing several crucial events for the regional water sector. We hope you will hear more about BSR WATER over the upcoming months!
See you around in the region!