EKOROB Project during Celebrations of the 40th Anniversary of the Sulejow Reservoir
On 11 December 2013, a special conference to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Sulejow Reservoir was held under EKOROB Project in Molo Hotel in Smardzewice.
The conference was organised by the Regional Water Management Board in Warsaw, which implements LIFE+ EKOROB Project ‘Ecotones for Reducing Diffuse Pollution’ (LIFE08 ENV/PL/000519) addressed to the Pilica catchment and Sulejow Reservoir in cooperation with the European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology of the Polish Academy Sciences in Lodz.
The Ministry of Environment, the Governor of Lodz Province and the Marshal of Lodz Province were the honorary patrons of the conference.
The invited guests included representatives of the Ministry of Environment, Marshal’s Office in Lodz, Lodz Agency for Regional Development, offices of towns, municipalities and districts from the area covered by EKOROB Project, research institutes and offices involved in water management.
The conference was opened by Leszek Bagiński, Director of the Regional Water Management Board in Warsaw. Mateusz Balcerowicz representing the Ministry of Environment and Andrzej Woźniak representing the Marshal’s Office in Lodz also welcomed the guests.
The meeting provided an opportunity to sum up 40 years of the Reservoir’s exploitation, but namely to identify plans for future based on the results of EKOROB Project. During the conference its speakers spoke about the history of developing the reservoir, its construction and exploitation. An option of applying ecohydrology for effective catchment management was the leading theme of the conference, which was covered by Prof. Maciej Zalewski in his presentation (Ecohydrology as a Methodology to Implement the Water Framework Directive). In her presentation entitled ‘Strategy of Applying Ecohydrological Methods and System Solutions to Reduce Toxic Cyanobacterial Blooms in Sulejow Reservoir’, Dr Katarzyna Izydorczyk presented practical options of applying system solutions to manage water resources in the reservoir. Wojciech Frątczak presented results of EKOROB Project implementation in terms of social and economic development of the Pilica catchment region (Use of LIFE+ EKOROB Results to Increase Ecological and Tourist Potential of the Sulejow Reservoir Area).
A discussion panel chaired by Prof. Anna Rogut (University of Social Sciences) was the final item of the conference agenda. The other panellists included Leszek Bagiński (Regional Water Management Board in Warsaw), Mateusz Balcerowicz (Ministry of Environment), Prof. Maciej Zalewski (ERCE PAN), Ewa Paturalska-Nowak (Spatial Planning Office of Lodzkie Province), Włodzimierz Wojtaszek (Lodz branch of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture).
That panel addressed the necessity for developing a strategy to harmonise measures in order to attain sustainable development of the Pilica catchment with emphasis on three key issues for implementation, i.e. (1) improvement of the Sulejow Reservoir water quality, (2) improvement of the Pilica catchment water quality, and (3) social and economic development of the region. An opportunity of obtaining funds to finance measures to reduce emission of pollution in the Pilica catchment, i.e. measures in terms of pressures caused by agricultural and municipal functions, was another important aspect of the panel discussions. An option of proposing the Pilica catchment to become a demonstration site for the purpose of implementation of the EC water directives was the last topic of the discussions.
.jpg)
