Interreg Danube Hazard m3c – key project findings concerning current national policies

Tackling hazardous substances pollution in the Danube River Basin by Measuring, Modelling-based Management and Capacity building (Danube Hazard m3c) is an Interreg project co-funded by the European Union (ERDF, IPA, ENI). 14 countries of the Danube basin are involved in the project, including Croatia. The main objective of the project is to establish a coherent and comprehensive screening of the water status of the Danube basin. According to the EU Water Framework Directive, pollution by hazardous substances is an important water quality problem in the Danube River Basin that needs to be addressed. This also applies to non-EU member states, which have committed to pursue similar goals under the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River. The project is based on three elements of water governance: measuring, modelling, and management. Part of the project involves collecting and cataloguing available data on measurements of hazardous substances in the basin and analyzing existing rules and regulations that each country participating in the project adheres to. Conclusions are presented based on analyses of the main aspects of policies related to the management of hazardous substances in water, mainly in the following areas: national legislative frameworks, monitoring of hazardous substances in surface water, management of hazardous substances in groundwater, point source emitters, diffuse polluters, fees, analytical methods, databases and registers, and inventories of emissions of priority substances.