-
Home
-
European Projects
-
European Network of Municipalities and Rivers (ENMaR)
European Network of Municipalities and Rivers
(ENMaR)
Start date: Dec 31, 2004,
End date: Jun 29, 2007
PROJECT
FINISHED
The overall objective of ENMaR is to enable municipalities to make effective use of integrated water management. The partners aim to share knowledge and good practise related to the implementation of the WFD and its impacts on regional development. The focus of the activities carried out by the partners is on spatial planning, water services, tourism, forestry and agriculture. Achievements: ENMaR means 'European Network of Municipalities and Rivers' and that is what it was all about. ENMaR aimed to encourage regional development through the Water Framework Directive. Spatial planning, water services, tourism, forestry and agriculture were core areas of ENMaR as these determine regional development. ENMaR adopted the integrated approach of the WFD. With information and support from ENMaR the local authorities in the participating regions will be better able to implement water policy in a sustainable way, to participate actively in local river basin management, to make integrated and multidisciplinary planning decisions, to take advantage of improved water quality for regeneration, tourism promotion and to influence agricultural and foresty impacts. This project contributed to the public participation required by the WFD. The project partners were 'service providers' for municipalities and local stakeholders, which have been invited to attend the offered workshops. The highlight of phase 6 of the ENMaR project was the final conference in Riga, where the ENMaR Handbook was published. 77 people from the 5 ENMaR regions attended the event and exchanged project findings in the fields of tourism, spatial planning, water services, agriculture and forestry. The objective of this event was to highlight and discuss the linkage between the above mentioned core areas. The presentations given are available on the project web site www.enmar.org. The opportunity given by the host of the conference, Vides Projekti, to take part in an excursion day within the Gauja basin was very much welcomed. Last meetings took place as well on the regional level, the last regular one in Spain, and two additional ones in the Eman and the Mersey basin. Overall, many municipal representatives and other stakeholders confirmed, that the project and especially the dialogue between different technical disciplines was considered as very useful. The outputs and activities have been the following: - 11 partner meetings to evaluate progress in regions, prepare, and evaluate regional workshops and discuss good practice; - 4 european conferences (including midterm meeting) - a comparison of the river basins based on the current situation and stakeholder information available relating to municipalities and the ENMaR components, including a collection of 60 good examples > the ENMaR Handbook (available on the web site) - stakeholder maps for regions and components; 138 municipalities involved - 53 regional workshops with about 1900 participants to discuss impacts of EU water policy, attended by municipal representatives and local stakeholders working on all components; - 12 newsletters and an interim report available on the project web site