The Pripyat River runs through the Eastern European countries of Belarus and Ukraine. Ensuring security in the region is contingent upon the shared management of the Pripyat River. But, shared management first required a formal set of rules agreeable to both countries, a tall order with history and political roots.
The Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC) launched a project from 2008 into late 2010, for the Upper Pripyat. The end goal of ENVSEC’s project in the Pripyat River was to establish an “environmentally safe, ecologically viable, and mutually acceptable allocation of water,” between Belarus and Ukraine.
Nickolai Denisov, in the lead as ENVSEC Regional Desk Officer of the Pripyat River Project told WaterWideWeb, “During the Soviet Union, the Pripyat River Basin was managed by a Belarusian organization. There were administrative borders but not state borders between Belarus and Ukraine then. After the Soviet Union broke up, it became difficult for Belarusian organizations to manage water infrastructure on the Ukrainian side of the river.”
Historically, Ukraine did not have the resources or the capacity to maintenance water infrastructure that affected water flow in the Pripyat River. Belarus had the tools to upkeep water infrastructure but crossing into Ukraine was difficult.
Tools and procedures to manage water resources between Belarus and Ukraine, and all of the states of the Soviet Union for that matter, were non-existent. Thus, countries had to navigate a complex web of environmental and politically charged issues that they were previously immune to.
The Pripyat River flows into the Dnieper Canal. Thus, water level oversight is of utmost importance to both countries for safety and security reasons. A number of ecosystems including lakes and wetlands rely on the flow and water level of the Pripyat River for survival.
Careful monitoring of the river’s flows, especially during times of low water levels and floods, ensures an environmentally sustainable river system and timely flood warning sent to the country of Belarus when the river’s waters begin to rise.
The capability component of the Pripyat River was developed under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s Science for Peace and Security Programme. It is the start of setting up a flood warning system between the countries.” Belarus and Ukraine did not have dialogue, nor did they reach a viable solution to address flood warnings in the Pripyat River prior to NATO’s efforts.
Monitoring the river’s water levels during flood seasons was not timely enough for Belarus to be equipped and ready to respond to floods. NATO is helping to install scaling stations that measure the river’s water levels accurately. This tool will help the two countries to share information about flood potentials and some capacities to respond to these occurrences will improve. According to Dr Alexei Iarochevit, Ukrainian Co-Director of the project, the first station has been installed and inaugurated in Lutsk, Ukraine, in February 2011.”
“The whole point of this process was not just infrastructure. The issue of setting a formal set of rules that could further negotiations between the countries had to be discussed,” continued Denisov. Threats to public health, agricultural production, or economic development are not primary concerns with respect to the Pripyat River Basin. “A coordinated regime to address the issue of resource management needed to occur.”
The Upper Pripyat River is fairly clean. The impact on the Upper Pripyat due to the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in 1986 was relatively moderate. “The bottleneck issue between Belarus and Ukraine was the absence of agreed proceedings for updating infrastructure. Now, that bottleneck is removed and the countries can move forward with negotiations,” assured Denisov.
Reaching a solid foundation for negotiations in the Pripyat River Basin is a primary step in stabilizing natural resource management in a region that has struggled with this issue since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Water infrastructure and maintenance has major implications on a regions ability to develop economically and to advance technologically. Coordinating efforts between the countries with respect to the Pripyat River removes a hindrance to progress between Belarus and Ukraine.
Water and security concerns vary depending on a region of the world, and the unique history of countries involved in negotiation. Mortality rates from water-borne diseases may not be high, nor is agricultural output suffering due to inadequate water supply for irrigated farming. But, traces of stalled development and impending financial consequences due to faulty water infrastructure were evident in Belarus and Ukraine.
Responding to shared stewardship of water resources promotes peace and increased dialogue between transboundary countries. Long-term effects of NATO and ENVSEC’s work in the Pripyat River are not yet quantifiable, but are certainly promising in a region where transboundary river management was once an outstanding issue.
Photo Credit: Nickolai Denisov & ENVSEC
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