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National Policy Dialogue on water restarted in Ukraine after a six-year break

In Kyiv, a high-level multi-stakeholder meeting on 28 March 2017 marked the restart of the UNECE-assisted water policy process after a six-year pause. Some 50 participants from key stakeholder organizations attended the meeting of the newly formed National Policy Dialogue (NPD) Steering Committee to discuss challenges that Ukraine faces in harmonizing its water policy and practice with relevant EU directives, according to the Association Agreement signed in 2014.


The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Minister of Environment, Mr. Mykola Kuzio, who expressed satisfaction with the restart of the NPD process in Ukraine and stressed its vital role in ensuring proper coordination between national stakeholders and international projects for meeting the country’s commitments under the Association Agreement with the EU. Besides the ongoing legal and institutional changes in the water sector, the provision of clean water and sanitation, the preparation of river basin management plans, measures for flood risk management, sustainable agriculture and the protection of the marine environment were discussed. Ukraine does not generally face the problem of water scarcity, but access to water resources is uneven across its regions, investments in water infrastructure have been low and much of the existing water infrastructures are in disrepair.


Representatives of UNECE, OECD, Austria and France presented plans of the joint 2016-2020 EU Water Initiative project in Ukraine. Under the project, UNECE will assist Ukraine in modernizing its water legislation, developing cooperation with neighbouring countries on transboundary rivers and updating national water and health targets.


For more information, please visit: www.unece.org/env/water/np
Note to editors

National Policy Dialogues (NPDs) on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and Water Supply and Sanitation are the main operational instrument of the European Union Water Initiative Component for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.


UNECE is the strategic partner for support to the policy dialogue processes on IWRM.

NPDs are under way in the following countries of the region: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.

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