Impetus for international flood prevention and protection

Transboundary cooperation covering entire river basins is a prerequisite for effective flood protection. More than 100 international experts will, at the invitation of the Federal Environment Ministry, be discussing common guidelines for flood prevention and protection over the next two days. This Conference is being held in Berlin within the framework of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UN-ECE).

The guidelines, which were adopted in March 2000 in The Hague by the Parties to the Convention, contain guiding provisions that have already been successfully implemented in many river basins. National economies cannot bear the burden of catastrophic damage several times per decade - such as in August 2002 along the Elbe in Germany alone. It is clear that flooding will continue in future. In view of climate change, more frequent flooding can even be expected as a result of extreme weather events. This makes cooperation beyond Länder and national borders all the more important.

This is also taken into consideration in the draft Act by the Federal Environment Ministry on improving preventive flood protection, which the Environment Committee of the German Bundestag will be addressing today. The Flood Protection Act sets clear signals for the necessary cooperation in river basin districts. Priority is given to protection measures being carried out wherever they are most effective and economically viable.

With its 5-point programme from 15 September 2002 Germany committed itself to organising an international river conference. The goal is to develop joint, internationally coordinated procedures for flood prevention and protection. During the preparatory work for the conference it became clear that the focal points of the discussions would be implementing the UN-ECE guidelines and gearing different policy areas to the goal of precautionary flood protection.