Water Governance in Europe & CIS

Water Governance

Main Challenges in the Region

While countries in the region report high degrees of “connectivity” to the state water and sanitation grid, many household in reality face severe problem with running water and sewerage. In many cases, tap water is of dubious quality and delivered at limited times during the day or week. Many rural areas still lack basic infrastructure for access to water & sanitation.  

A lack of awareness and failure of past education about water conservation, combined with the widespread prevailing expectation that water (and sanitation) services are provided free of charge, results in low water use efficiency. Furthermore, the region faces an acute imbalance between required and available financial resources for the development and maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure.

Water knows no political boundaries: The emergence of new states in the region after the fall of the Soviet Union exacerbated the problem of demarcation of natural water-systems (river, lake, sea and groundwater basins). The pressure on transboundary water (and land) resources can lead to potential conflicts between states (and local users) sharing them.

UNDP priority areas and activities

Water governance is a strategic priority for UNDP in the region. Concrete work is concentrating around the two main areas of watersupply and sanitation and transboundary water management. To develop and implement projects and achieve sustainable results in this sector, UNDP focuses besides capacity development strongly on gender equality and human rights based approaches.