Croatian web page of WaterCycle Project

Dear all,

Croatian web page of the project Watercycle has become active on the 2nd of July 2008 on the following address: www.watercycleproject.org. Web page presents all activities of the project Watercycle and it's croatian projects partners: Sisak-moslavina county, town Koprivnica, town Velika Gorica and town Pleternica.

Best regards,
Marija Ljubešić

Sisak-Moslavina County
Administrative Department for
Management of Accession and Incentive Funds

WIC 2008 - Brindisi 29-30 May 2008

WIC 2008

Watercycle International conference
on Water Sustainable Management best practices

Brindisi 29-30 May 2008

www.wic2008.eu

Conference of Sustainable Management of Waters

Conference of Sustainable Management of Waters

Importance of establishment of system of drainage and purification of waste waters

4th of April 2008
HRVATSKA KOSTAJNICA - Hotel Central, Ulica Vladimira Nazora 1

Invitation

GoW - Water Governance Project - Conference of Presentation of the Water Building Regulations

A presentation Conference dedicated to Building Regulations for Water saving, recycling and reusing in the civic sector will take place on 22nd of January 2008 at 9.30 a.m. in the Salone di Rappresentanza of the Province of Brindisi, as result of the GoW Project - Governance system of water resources and coastal marine ecosystem protection. The Province of Brindisi is Lead Partner of the GoW Project, in partnership with Comune di Brindisi, Prefettura di Zante, ARPA Puglia - Brindisi Department, University of Salento - DiSTEBa, University of Patras, CoNISMa and Torre Guaceto Protected Area, cofinanced by PIC Interreg III A Greece-Italy.

www.watergovernance.it

Contact person:

Giovanni Antelmi
Dirigente Servizio Politiche Comunitarie
Provincia di Brindisi
Via De Leo, 3 - 72100 Brindisi
Tel. +39/0831565322 - Fax +39/0831565412
Cell. +39/3405558342
giovanni.antelmi@provincia.brindisi.it

The Watercycle Steering Committee and Technical Working Groups are operative

During the last Watercycle Meeting in Campobasso (26-27th of June) the management units of the project have been finally approved; new operational lines on the planned actions have been decided.


Please download and read the Meeting Minute (Pdf)

The WaterCycle Project - Contact Person

Contact Person:

Ing. Paola Magri - Provincia di Ferrara
C.so Isonzo, 105/a - 44100 Ferrara (Italy)

Phone: 0039-0532-299541; Fax: 0039-0532-299553
E-mail: paola.magri@provincia.fe.it

The WaterCycle Project contacts and roles list: here

Province of Ferrara - It

The Province of Ferrara is located in the north-eastern part of the Italian peninsula, in the north-eastern corner of the Region Emilia Romagna, along the axis Venice-Florence-Rome. Ferrara is 50 km from Bologna, the regional capital, and 60 km from the Adriatic Sea. Venice is 120 km to the North, while to the south the Province borders on the Province of Ravenna, which is 80 km from the centre of Ferrara. The northern boundary of the Province of Ferrara is marked by the bank of the Po River, beyond which there is the Province of Rovigo with the area of Polesine. The southern boundary is marked by the River Reno, running through the territories of Bologna and Ravenna.

The Province of Ferrara is located in a flat area that covers 25% of the level ground of the whole Region. Therefore, the area of Ferrara has always been characterised by the balance of land and water. Part of the area was reclaimed from sea and brackish water.

Agriculture has always been the main activity of the Province of Ferrara. Modernisation has reached the Province only partially: it never experienced a massive industrialization process, although there are some excellent industrial examples in the area (VM motors, Berco, ...). The 350.000 inhabitants of the Province live mainly in the city area and along the coast, as well as in the areas of the towns of Cento and Argenta. In 1995 Ferrara was inscribed in the UNESCO List of World Heritage Properties as admirable example of Renaissance City, unique for the integral conservation of its historic centre. In the following years the area of the Po Delta Park was also acknowledged World Heritage Property. The Park covers 60,000 hectares stretching between the Provinces of Ferrara and Ravenna and is coordinated by the Municipalities and the Consortium created for the management of the Delta area. The whole area is covered by a network of cycling routes, connecting the western corner of the provincial territory with the eastern end of the delta area. The Municipalities are currently working on projects for the creation of river routes. Some have already been completed: the recovered docks in the city connect Ferrara with the River Po and the Adriatic Sea.

The Province of Ferrara comprises 26 Municipalities, which host about 35,000 enterprises. Agriculture employs 8% of the labour force (twice the national average). The agricultural share of the provincial GDP ranks second in the north-eastern part of the country. The industrial sector employs 35% of the population, 14% of the added value produced by the whole sector is generated by the artisan sector. The service sector employs 57% of the working population. The unemployment rate is 4%, about half of the national rate and the income per capita, with 17,000 euros, is above the National average of about 15,000 euros. Recently, the Province has committed itself to research in the field of new technologies and services. The city now hosts a cluster of technological research, which is the incubator for the development of innovative enterprises within the regional network of industrial research. The University of Ferrara has 8 faculties, both in the scientific (medicine, engineering, economy, etc) and humanistic areas (letters, philosophy, law, etc), attended by about 15,000 students.


Province of Ferrara Action Plan in WaterCycle Project

Exchange of experiences, good practices and pilot actions in the field of planning and managing water resources in catchments basins, coastal areas and lagoons on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. Main actions: a software for the implementation of the hydraulic and quality mathematical model; a chapter on the analysis of different possible scenarios through the model mentioned before, in the draft discussion paper of the Provincial Plan for the Protection of Waterways, which will be circulated among citizens, institutions and environmental associations during the participation phase envisaged for the approval of the Plan; a chapter on the analysis of possible scenarios through the model mentioned before in the final draft of the Provincial Plan for the Protection of Waterways; a dedicated section to the argument on the Web site of the Province of Ferrara; dissemination of the results of the use of the model mentioned before during the participation phase envisaged for the approval of the Plan.

Province of Ferrara

Municipality of Pesaro - It

Presentation of the City and the Foglia River

Pesaro (95,000 inhabitants circa) is the main city on the northern Marches coastline, as well as being the capital of the Province of Pesaro and Urbino. The Foglia River, which has its source on the alluvial plains, at the end of its course empties into the Adriatic Sea at Pesaro, where it forms a small delta. The city is situated on the low sandy coast and narrows in the north and south, where two reliefs meet the sea, one on either side: St. Bartolo Mountain and Ardizio Mountain. Tourism accounts for some of the economic activity of the city, but the most important industry is furniture making (the so-called kitchen district) and the manufacture of machinery. The main industrial areas are located on the alluvial plain along the course carved by the Foglia River.

The Foglia River has its source at Mount Sovera, near to Sestino (in the province of Arezzo) and its main course runs for 79 kilometres, ending in Pesaro. Its catchment basin measures 628 Km² in all, of which 603 is mountain basin. The river’s course has a SW-NE flow as it crosses the Province of Pesaro at right angles to the tectonic structures, with a brusque deviation when it reaches the internal side of Montecalvo in Foglia. The presence of geological formations composed primarily of marble, sandstone and clay, account for its low to medium permeability values. The wide range of the fluctuating water levels it carries are directly linked to area rainfall amounts. The maximum flow levels are a phenomenon typical of spring and autumn, while during the summer or in periods of drought, the river’s flow registers its minimum values. The highest current speed ever registered in Pesaro itself was 1,830 m³/sec in 1955. Episodes of overflow in the past were due, to a great extent, to sections of the river course with reduced flow capacity, which were unable to efficiently conduct the excess water brought about by episodes of exceptional rainfall. The modern day mouth of the river is the result of land reclamation activity dating to 1613-1615. On the alluvial plain itself, the river’s flow meanders in the wide loops typical of rivers on almost flat land and with a low incline factor. The course of the river is interrupted by an important man-made basin, the Mercatale irrigation damn.

The specific objectives of Pesaro in the project

The city of Pesaro, where the river system is an integral part of the urban structure, considers the problem of hydro-geologic safety, as well as the safety of its citizens and the land which can be put at risk by an over-flow of the river, an important aspect of its duty. At the same time, however, issues regarding the use of the river for recreational purposes are also central to the qualification and sustainable use of the resource. The work group, in the meantime, is dealing with these two aspects of the problem of rivers, in contrast with one another but which must be seen as complementary one to the other, in an integrated manner.

Information regarding the projects has been made available on a website created for this project.

Municipality of Pesaro

Municipality of Campobasso - It

The Project foresees:

Action 1

On-site experimentation on possible uses of purified recycled water.
Purified water can be used for different purposes:
- Irrigation: for the irrigation of crops meant for the production of food as well as non-food products; irrigation of green areas for recreational and sport activities.
- Civil use: washing roads in urban centres, supplying heating and air conditioning systems; feeding dual pipelines separated from drinkable water systems, excluding the direct use in private households except for toilet flush and garden irrigation.
- Industrial use: in fire-fighting, washing, thermal cycles of industrial processes excluding any use that entails contact with food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.

Action 2

A study on slush will be carried out to assess the field of analysis and the scope, in order to identify areas suitable for the use of slush.
The study will also am at:
- Identifying the transport area – from the plant to the site where slush is stocked or used
- Identifying the field of use – agricultural land where slush is used as fertiliser and amender
- Identifying a functional unit, i.e. a product unit that has the characteristics typical of the product
- Corroborating the agronomic value of slush and confirming that polluting values are below the threshold foreseen by law for non-chemical fertilisers
- Using slush according to crop type and soil characteristics (i.e. suitability of the soil for slush spreading)
- Comparing slush with traditional fertilisers
- Applying available data to a pilot action in the territory of Campobasso

Action 3

Dissemination of results and communication, information and training campaigns for future users, including technical staff

Municipality of Campobasso

Brindisi District - It

It’s been decided to work following two principal lines of intervention:

- Creation of a transferable model of best practice for a permanent cooperation;
- Building up of information services for Public Bodies and Intitutions who wants to share informations, procedures and instruments for the water managing and monitorino. This is meant to assure new opportunities of relationship and integration with the local productive system and with the population.

With this aim two action have been built:

Constitution and activation of a technical board
Besides Puglia Region, the Province of Brindisi, other actors will be part of the technical board, such as project partner at a local level,waterworks Pugliese, Consorzio di Bonifica dell’Arneo, Genio Civile of Brindisi, Guardia Finanza, Autorità Bacino.

Nearby the technical group will be built the relationships between partners involved with regard to the single experiences in the local development process. It will be necessary to develop activities and skills of each one in order to:
- To share approaches and methodologies used;
- To valorose experiences of best practices;
- To capitaliste the results;
- To enable conditions to strenghten strategies and methodologies of integration;
- To elaborate a shared protocol of cooperation between bembers of the techinical board.

At the same time the partner will develop studies and research aimed to have a clear image of the present situation, to know the administrative reality , and in particolar that of Province of Brindisi, using datas available in the Institution partner of the project and integrating these informations with the distribution of questionnaires to a target group of citizens. The final document that will be written down will containan analysis of the roles and functions of the different public institution involved in the management of water resources and i twill focose the contact points on wich to build a tighter cooperation. It will be useful to define the strategic objectives of intervention, to fix the priority and to focuse the attention on the more critic aspects. It will be realised a di panel test aimed at the debite between opinion leader to decide the priorities to work on and to obtain a solution of the problems discussed.

Operative and strategic organisation

This activity will be addressed to define the techinical and operative role of each partner in his specific sector, the description of the characteristics, of the competences and of the experiences matured. In the compilation of the form a particolar emphasis will be given to the experiences of integration and interaction of each subject and that can be transferred to the group in the all to plan hypotesis of improvment of models and experiences and to capitaliste the results obtained.
It will be write down a first draft called “chart of commitments” that will show clearly:
- the role of each body with regard to the aims chosen and shared in the technical board;
- undertaking of precise responsabilities;
- human, informative, logistic and technical resources to share for the project especially with regard to the development of the informative system;
- the choice of integrated procedures (organisational protocol of the net);
- composition of collegial bodies (pilot board, executive commettee) and definition of the representatives for each partner;
- how to integrate activities (common actions, monitoring, …).
Each partner should fill in a techinical form that stress how to develop these two elements:
Planning and built up of the watercycle – net community

Starting from the analysis of the different roles and procedures in the single involved public institution, and from the need of Public administration to interact with citizens, i twill be built up an informative system with these functional characteristics:
- To supplì services to the citizens to facilitate the use of water resources (informations on procedures, forms, competent offices;
- Interaction and sharing of informations between public bodies (intranet)
Another role of the informative system is that to contribute to the spread of culture and respect for water as a common good to be respected and safeguarded. With this aim it will be published a newsletter, there will be an on-line poll, it will be open a forum of discussion on the web to share a common heritage of knowledge.
The informative system, in the ned, will run the datas and the informations in a compatible way because the Region Puglia wants to develop the GISA system, wich is the regional informative system for the management and monitorino of pugliesi water resources.

Promotion and information in the territory

This line of intervention is meant to produce actions of information in the society useful to facilitate the experimentation of a new and improved organisational model and to produce a follow-up. The partner will organise meetings and workshop and a publication in wich i twill be presented the situation of the local water system, the opportunities of cooperation and the instruments used. Besides the partner of the project also the specialised technician will attend the meetings.

Province of Brindisi

County of Sisak-Moslavina - Hr

Sisak-Moslavina County is a regional authority, in charge for development policies, environment protection, coordination of local powers at regional level. The county will be at the same time Watercycle partner and Croatian Lead Partner, playing as a coordinator for project activities in Croatian territory and at the same time undertaking direct actions on it's own territory.
Beneficiaries of the actions will be citizens of the County, municipalities, technical bodies, farmers, entrepreneurs, local NGO's operating in environment protection.

Action plan:

A1 - Sustainable management of nature resources, drinking water as environmental heritage
A1.1 - Data on drinking water in the area: collection and analysis
A1.2 - Study on options of sustainable management of nature resources, drinking water as environmental heritage
A1.3 - Operational plan of sustainable management of nature resources, drinking water as environmental heritage
A2 - Raise public awareness and increase participatory approach to sustainable management of nature resources - drinking water:
- Public awareness campagne
- Thematic (educative) groups
A2.1 - Round tables and conferences of sustainable management of nature resources-drinking water, for technicians, public officers, specific sector operators
A3 Experimentation on biological purifier of waste water for areas of Dvor, Hrvatska Dubica, Hrvatska Kostajnica (regional territory)
A3.1 Elaboration of project documentation of biological purifier for areas of Dvor, Hrvatska Dubica, Hrvatska Kostajnica
A4 Utilisation and promotion of utilisation of thermal waters for health, tourism and energy purposes – Feasibility study.
A4.1- Development of draft project proposal on thermal waters
A5 - Coordinating actions for Croatian partners (meetings, elaboration of guidelines, action organisation, management and financial assistance)

County of Sisak-Moslavina

Town of Koprivnica - Hr

Existing condition of the sewage system in the Town of Koprivnica (Koprivnica-Krizevci county, Croatia) shows a high level of completeness. It is primarily constructed as mixed system of drainage (faecal and precipitation water). All wastewater is lead to the main collecting channel and through closed main collector to the mechanical water purifying system. After mechanical purification, wastewater is released through a water channel into the Drava river.

Priority interventions for improving the sewage system are setting up biological waste water purifier as well as setting up the closed main collector. These projects are already in their start up phase. Along with these capital investments into sewage system, within last decade the applicant has systematically spread and reconstructed the existing secondary networks. In order to further advance and improve the sewage system it is necessary to carry out the optimisation of the sewage system. The current system is not sufficient and sustainable because of the growth of population and its insufficient capacities to meet the needs of urban development of the region. In is therefore necessary to elaborate the project of sewage system optimisation which would include the existing sewage system as well as its planned development, according to which the reconstruction and enlargement of sewage network will be conducted.

Town of Koprivnica

Town of Velika Gorica - Hr

Main goal of Velika Gorica city is the sustainable management and the protection of the groundwater body in the area of the municipal water supply plant (so called Kosnica I) and other areas with groundwater from the pollution of municipal waste-waters. Velika Gorica water plants are strategic water supplier for the capital city Zagreb. Beneficiaries will be all the local stakeholders liable for managing, planning, financing, utilizing of the sewage system network, like citizens of Velika Gorica, technicians, local power, entrepreneurs, local public service company

Activities

1) Duration: 3 months

Working out the feasibility study for the sewage system of surrounding villages – main goal is to find which is the more cost-efficient and ecologically sound solution – to connect the sewage systems of those villages to the sewage treatment plant in Zagreb or the one in Velika Gorica.

2) Duration: 6 months

Working out the environmental impact study for the innovation and improvement of the municipal waste-water treatment plant in Velika Gorica.

3) Duration: 2 months

Working out the documentation needed for receiving the site permit for the reconstruction of the municipal waste-water treatment plant in Velika Gorica.

Town of Velika Gorica

Municipality of Pleternica - Hr

Starting from the necessity of Pleternica to provide basic human amenities and alleviate health hazards in rural community, the main objective is to meet the needs for new Waste Water Disposal Facilities (WWDF). Beneficiaries will be rural residents, rural businesses, farmers and other users in Pleternica's rural areas.

The actions will be conducted as follows:

1st Step, 4 months activity
Analyses of the existing needs for WWDF in chosen settlements (for example, 3 distant villages with less than 500 inhabitants or 200 households) through a field research of the selected villages, estimate of the needs for WWDF made by our regional experts

2nd step, 2 months activity
Promotion of the analysis and intervention between citizens
- Web site
- Advertising actions (leaflets production and distribution)
- Promotion on the local press

3rd step, 10 months activity
Research of the innovative solutions in WWDF that suites best the needs and capacities of the villages
Study (research material), cost-benefit analysis, or feasibility study made by Institutions from Watercycle partnership whose focus of interest are innovative WWDF

4th step, 4 months activity
Projecting the WWDF for the targeted areas
Technical project documentation made by approved experts

Municipality of Pleternica

Municipality of Shkoder - Al

The priority for the Municipality of Shkoder is the building up of a technical unit in charge for the management and the planning of water resources, able to provide to the needs registered, to manage and implement interventions able to satisfy the town needs.Moreover the presence in the last 5/6 years of international donors in the field of water has produced a need of relationship in order to facilitate the management of the interventions gifted, without loosing opportunities and investments.

Action 1

Structuring of a Water Office within the technical offices of the Municipalità of Shkoder, training of 3 technicians in the sector of:
- Integrated planning of existant water resources
- Individualization of weaknesses, strenght points, needs of the existant nets
- implementation and management of interventions
- economic evaluation and cost/benefit analysis of the works
- instruments of evaluation of the environmental sustainability for the interventions planned

Action 2

Experimentation of a plant for canalisation and treatment of discharged urban waters. This intervention represents an integrative part of training acitivities and it’s an experimental attempt (transfert of knowledge and best practices from other partners of the project and from qualified technicians of the sector).
- Planning of an increase of the actual sewerage net in Shkoder, in a neighbour or in an area of the town
- Hydrodinamic, hydraulic, environmental evaluation on the intervention in the planning phase
- Cost/benefit evaluation
- Impact of the new infrastructure on the lake: possibile treatment
- Launch of the procedure sto implement the project: from the approval of budget to the beginning of works
- Realisation of the plant, tests and sharing in the net

Municipality of Shkoder