Pilot Project Summary - Romania Tirgu Mures, Romania: Taking care of the river together with its beneficiaries: Improving the flow of information and public involvement in water management through the capacity building of diverse interest groups NGO: Focus Eco Center Project Leader: Zoltan Hajdu Project Background The Mures River Basin, specifically the River surrounding the city of Tirgu Mures, is severely polluted from the local water treatment station, the Reghin water treatment station upstream, pig farms from Gornesti, as well as artificial fertilizers, industrial plants, and agricultural and rural runoff. This has impacted both Tigu Mures and Iernut residents’ drinking water, and the well-based drinking water of rural areas. In recent years, the Mures River Basin acted as a technical pilot area for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive, which requires EU countries to organize water management at the basin level. However, national level NGOs have expressed their concerns over the time and consultation involved in NGO selection for River Basin Committees (RBC), despite the fact that the selection process respected Romanian legislation. Given that Romania will likely become a member of the EU in 2007, the time for fine tuning the public participation and access components of the WFD is short, but the need is significant. Project Activities Focus Eco Center will promote access to information and public participation through the following activities: 1. Build a network of stakeholders, particularly from the NGO sector, with an interest in water basin management by: creating a database of affected parties who will be informed of ongoing project activities, encouraged to participate in information dissemination, and take an active role in decision-making processes, especially in regards to future NGO representation on RBCs; 2. Propose a better model of public engagement and NGO selection, lobbying Water Authorities to this end, by: collecting information on the Murues RBC and best practices throughout the EU and distributing this information to relevant stakeholders; lobbying the Water Authority regarding current NGO selection criteria and recommending alternative procedures; and producing a guide entitled: “How to work together” which will be circulated to facilitate further cooperation through the description of best practices. 3. Train NGOs and civil servants in transparent water management, accessible information, and efficient public participation by: inviting Water Authorities and EPA to participate in workshops to provide training on effective public participation according to the WFD; and coordinating these activities with separately financed technical implementation training 4. Provide a model for possible use in other river basins by: evaluating the program; informing the media of current outcomes and future impacts; and using this momentum to help vault the NGO selection procedure elaborated during the project to the national level, where it will be debated by the NGO community and considered for possible use in the other 10 Romanian river basins. In the end, the activities in this project will test and share good practices in the Mures River with regard to access to information and public participation.

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