The INTERREG project Danube Hazard m3c officially kicked off with an online meeting on 23^rd of September 2020, with nearly one hundred water specialists from thirteen countries attending, mainly from academia but also from national and regional authorities, and sectoral agencies. IAWD is pleased to take part in the project as Associated Strategic Partner providing advice within the Work Package 4 on Capacity Building.

The meeting opened with two inspiring keynote presentations. Bernd Gawlik from the European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre covered “Water quality – the forgotten challenge?”, and Jos van Gils from water research institute DELTARES presented “The SOLUTIONS EU FP7 project about emerging chemicals in water resources management”, which Danube Hazard m3c will build on.

Getting down to the work at hand, Ottavia Zoboli (TU Wien) explained the context and objectives of the project and introduced the project partners. The working package leaders completed the program, presenting the individual technical working packages and their initial steps. Adrienne Clement (Budapest University of Technology and Economics) presented the WP T1 Inventory of hazardous substances, Oliver Gabriel (Environment Agency Austria) explained WP T2 Scenarios modelling and assessment in pilot regions, Adam Kovacs (ICPDR) covered the WP T3 Transnational HS pollution assessment and recommendations, and Elena Tuchiu (National Administration „Romanian Waters”) described WP T4 Capacity building. Each presentation included a compact question & answers session.

Following this kick-off event, the EU-funded project will run until the end of December 2022 with IAWD on board as an associate strategic partner in the field of capacity building.  Danube Hazard m3c aims to achieve durable, effective transnational control and reduction of hazardous substances water pollution in the Danube region. 

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