HPA Director Dursun Yıldız questioned "Why Hydro-diplomacy failed in the Maritza River Basin"

PDF -PRESENTATION-The failure of transboundary water management in the Maritsa river basin HPA Director Dursun  Yıldız  at the Hydro Diplomacy  international conference : Failure of Hydro diplomacy  in  Maritza Basin indicates  a paradigm shift need  10 October 2018 HPA Director Dursun  Yildiz presented Maritza Basin Failed Hydro Diplomacy in  Empowering Hydro-diplomacy International Conference in Holland   During the conference hydro-diplomacy has been analysed  in details  IHE Delft, Wageningen University and the London Water Research Group  co-organized the conference Empowering Hydro-diplomacy, to facilitate an exchange of ideas on the role of power and empowerment in water conflict, and cooperation across borders at multiple levels.The event hold with support from the City of The Hague, the Netherlands The conference  took place on 5 and 6 October .The conference  was very informative  and   participatory event on this subject Director of the Hydropolitics Academy Dursun Yıldız  participated in the conference by Skype. He made a presentation  on “Failed  Hydropolitics in Meriç (Maritza) River Basin” Why Maritza Basin is important case  for Hydro-Diplomacy. He communicated  on the Friday 5 October session, 14-15.30 hrs CET, The session was  chaired by  Prof. Dr.Georg  Frerks from NLDA In this session of the conference classical hydro-diplomacy was questioned.In his presentation  he firstly explained that Why Maritza Basin is important case  for Hydro-Diplomacy.and why it was choosen to be presented. “Past experienced on transboundary conflicts showed that  Hydro-diplomacy need successfull examples from  transboundary conflicted regions.Some exemplary solutions are needed in  transboundary river basins. Maritza Basin could be one of them but we missed this chance “ He continued his presentation  saying that: “In fact, only changing of the upstream dams operation rules would be very helpfull for preventive measures . But till now ,no serious progress has been achived among riparian states by classical Hydro-diplomacy . Floods in the Maritsa River over the last 10 years have caused significant damages in Turkey and Greece. Total economic loss calculated at € more that 300 million  Euro It is unfortunate that the three riparian state (two of which are currently members of the EU) have not taken any measure to prevent the floods collaboratively. Despite the significant damage caused by flooding in last ten years ,no serious progress has been achived till now. So far, the three countries have only been able to establish a ‘flood early warning system’ in the basin through a recent EU project. This system has allowed the reduction of casualties but has not prevented very serious economic losses and social problems resulting from large floods. He stressed that  Although It is essential for Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey to cooperate in the planning of flood prevention and protection measures, we have seen Individual protective measures instead of an integrated prevantive measures  in the basin. He also  pointed out that “Because no basin-wide protective measures have been taken, Turkey has decided to take its own measures and built a by pass channell nearby Maritza river bed to  to protect Edirne City and agricultural lands Even  a huge  diversion channell has already completed to protect from flood  in Turkey,we still need an innovative hydro diplomacy in the region to take  sustainable measures for flood prevention. Therefore intense efforts should be made to invite the EU to promote  a basin wide preventive integrated project In the final part of his presentation he mentioned about  innovative hydro diplomacy .He pointed out that the lack of flood management cooperation between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey in the Maritsa basin has rised some questions  about  classical  transboundary water management concept. Following questions need to be responded to analyse impact of classical hydro -diplomacy in the basin

• Why Mitigation Measures taken are individual ,not basin wide integrated measures
• Why Measures has been protective measures instead of preventive
• Why Measures are not compatible with rational water resources planning and engineering.
• Does the Classical hydro-diplomacy need to be improved

He explained lesson learned from this case as follows; “International water management is difficult to implement, even among countries located in one of the world’s most developed regions. That means that we need a paradigm shift on this issue “ He concluded his speech pointing out  that "to solve 21st century complex problems we need a new type of thinking" He also responded some questions from the attendees You can reach the main structure of D. Yildiz presentation clicking the link The failure of transboundary water management in the Maritsa river basin HPA News.