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News, April 2012
Team members of the Responsible Management of Water Resources for Sustainable Development Program took part in the XVI Scientific and Practical Conference “Sustainable Regional Development: Situations and Prospects”
The key implementers of the Responsible Management of Water Resources for Sustainable Development Program – scientists and graduate students of the Institute of Water Problems at the Russian Academy of Sciences - attended the XVI Scientific and Practical Conference “Sustainable Regional Development: Situations and Prospects” organized in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky on April 24, 2012. Their presentations were devoted to the objective of furthering the mechanisms of improving water resources management in the Russian Federation. In his introductory speech, Prof. Venetsianov, head of the Water Protection Laboratory at the Institute of Water Problems, stressed the significance of challenges related to municipal water resources management. This subject was of special interest to the audience that was made up mainly of instructors and students of universities and colleges specializing in the field of water management. The speaker sited as an example the program (model) of water resources management for a small town that was designed under the Program in 2011 jointly with Pereslavl-Zalessky stakeholders and tested in 2011-2012.
Young scientists and students from Moscow, Yaroslavl, Rybinsk, Tver and Pereslavl-Zalessky presented the results of their research work on such issues as unauthorized dumps, solid household waste management, water pollution hazard assessment and environmental problems of small cities - Pereslavl-Zalessky, Tver, Rybinsk and Yaroslavl. Thus, graduate students from the Institute of Water Problems involved in the Program presented their papers “Justification and implementation procedure for the principle of best available technology” (G.Zvezdenkova) and “Development of a model of interagency management of water bodies’ environmental safety on the basis of monitoring procedures and internet data” (O.Avandeyeva). The materials of the conference were used for putting out its collected papers.
The importance of multi-sector interaction in sustainable regional development was stressed at a round table held as part of the conference at which the joint work of partner organizations from Pereslavl-Zalessky in local water management carried out in 2011-2012 was analyzed and discussed. It is impossible to address environmental problems in a small city by any one sector. It is important to promote an understanding of the importance of collaborating and coordinating the plans of controlling organizations, the city administration and the local national park and taking into account the initiatives and interests of the public and business community, i.e., all key stakeholders of the process – which is key to the sustainable development of the region. During the past year, there has been an obvious increase of the local government’s interest in working together with these sectors. This was in many ways facilitated by the Strategy of socially responsible solutions to Pereslavl-Zalessky water and environmental issues worked out in 2011. The results of the round table discussion and commentaries of city and raion stakeholders will form the basis of a “Standard procedure of joint actions of key stakeholders program” and the “Municipal water resources management model” that will be developed and tested under the Program.
