The training course was commissioned by the Economische VoorlichtingsDienst [Agency for International Business and Cooperation (EVD)]. For three weeks in November and December 2006, participants received training in the areas of water quality (Water Framework Directive) and water quantity (Flood Risk Management).

Grontmij gave the course to policy officers from ministries and water managers from newly acceded Member States and candidate countries within the framework of the Matra Training for European Cooperation (MTEC) programme. The programme comprised a combination of lectures, field visits and group assignments. The topics examined included writing a river basin management plan, modelling flood risks, the legal aspects of EU directives, and model projects and field visits to various water management authorities and civil engineering works.

International teams were formed for the group assignments and each group was assigned an existing Eastern European river basin. The objective was to draw up a proposal for an integrated river basin management plan. The participants applied what they had been taught and learned to work together in an international context.

Group assignments
The group assignments resulted in extremely realistic proposals for approaching the selected, transboundary river basins, which tackled water quality and flooding aspects in an integrated manner. The proposals had to be defended at the end of the course before a ‘European Commission’ consisting of trainers from WL Delft, Ecorys and Grontmij.

Ecorys was responsible for the overall coordination and economic aspects of the course, WL Delft contributed its knowledge on flood management, and Grontmij dealt with the Water Framework Directive and supervised the group assignments.

The participants’ response was enthusiastic. The team can look back on an interesting training course in which we met people whom we are sure to meet again within the context of other projects in Eastern Europe.