Coordinated Danube Action for the titanic endeavor of tackling hazardous substances water pollution under changing pressures, challenges and targets

Duration:
2024 - 2026

Financing:
Interreg Danube Region Programme co-financed by the European Union, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management

Contact person:
Ottavia Zoboli

Project Staff:
Matthias Zessner, Steffen Kittlaus, Renata Kaps, Meiqi Lui

National Partners:
Environment Agency Austria (UBA)

International Partners:
Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Ungarn
Bulgarian Water Association (BWA), Bulgaria
Croatian Waters (HV), Croatia Jaroslav Černi Water Institute, Serbia
Jozef Stefan Institute (JSI), Slovenia
National Administration „Romanian Waters” (NARW), Romania
Public Institution “Vode Srpske” (JUVS), Bosnia and Herzegovina
Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute State Service on Emergencies and National Academy of Science (UHMI), Ukraine
Water Research Institute (WRI), Slovakia
Center for Ecotoxicological Research Podgorica (CETI), Montenegro
International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR)

Webpage: https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/tethys, opens an external URL in a new window
 

Brief information on the project

The project bears the name of the ancient Greek titan goddess of freshwaters, as it addresses the titanic task awaiting the Danube countries: It deals with the problem of water pollution by so-called hazardous substances (HS), which must be tackled in the context of ground-breaking changes in EU legislation and in connection with challenges such as climate change or the energy crisis. In this context, the transnational transfer of HS pollution obtains environmental, societal, political and legal dimensions even broader and more complex than before.

The planned approach will cover all required steps from monitoring and chemical analysis, data management and processing to emission modelling and risk assessment. By the end of the project, non-EU and EU countries in the DRB will have jointly developed fit-for-purpose strategies to prioritize resources allocated to monitoring and to select the most appropriate techniques and procedures to generate a solid data basis for HS emissions inventories, including specific pathways under-represented so far.

In order to find promising solutions, two scales, the national ones for the single Danube River Basin (DRB) countries and the transnational one addressing the DRB as a whole, need to be addressed in parallel. Building on the outputs of the DTP INTERREG Danube Hazard m3c and of other projects and initiatives, Tethys aims to tackle HS water pollution through a holistic set of activities that will develop, test, and provide to national organizations and to the ICPDR fit-for-purpose, target-oriented and cost-efficient procedures, workflows, and tools. The developed solutions will be harmonized at DRB scale and at the same time will be adjusted to the national specificities of the Danube countries, with special focus on aligning know-how, methods and tools between EU and non-EU territories.