Projetc title:
Improved regional development and cross border cooperation in the
Estonian-Russian border region through partial implementation of Lake
Peipsi Management Programme.
Financial support: INTERREG IIIA Programme
Project period: October 2007- March 2009
Lead partner: Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation, Margit Säre, margit@ctc.ee
Partners: NGO Lake Peipsi Project, Pskov - Olga Vassilenko, olgavassilenko@yahoo.com
Center for Transboundary Coopeartion - St.Petersburg - Natalia Alexeeva, natalia@ctcspb.ru
Peipsi Regional Development Association - Katrin Loss, katrin@aktivkeskus.ee
Municipal Enterprise of the city of Pskov "Gorvodokanal"
Introduction
The project is focusing Russian-Estonian border region, Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe area.
Major
weaknesses of the region are identified as monofunctional development,
environmental challenges and weak infrastructure. There is a great need
in the cooperation involving the regional and local governments, local
stakeholders, both from Estonian and Russian side to eliminate
development hindrances caused by geographical location and to ensure
sustainable development for the whole Lake region.
Overall sustainable
development objectives have been established in the Lake
Peipsi/Chudskoe Transboundary Management Programme (UNDP/GEF funded
project, managed by Peipsi CTC) that was elaborated in 2003-2005.
The Programme involves joint and coordinated measures for sustainable
use of resources in the transboundary waterbody for the period of
2006-2015.
Now the next critical
step is to widely inform the local population about the objectives of
the Management Programme and start implementation of the measures.
Thus, the current project is aiming the partial implementation of Lake Peipsi Management programme, more specifically the following parts: a)Municipal wastewater, b) Ecotourism c) Transboundary water management: coordination, info exchange, public participation.
Project activities
The
project activities aim to develop solutions for avoiding this EU
external border being an obstacle for regional development and to
improve sustainable use of natural resources.
Work package 1: Management and coordination
The workpackage will ensure the project is managed according to the project plan and stays on its "critical path". This will be achieved by the means of frequent and clear communication between the partners, steering group meetings etc.
Work package 2: Competence building and training program
The WP promotes competence building of local authorities to address sustainable development and environmental challenges in the transboundary Lake Peipsi region. The activities improve also networking, working relations and information exchange between specialists.
Three training sessions take place on following topics:
February 21-22, 2008, Tartu, Estonia
Nature learning and cross-border ecotourism - International Conference "Sustainable Development of Lake Areas"
May 19-20, 2008, Spitsino, Gdov oblast
Transboundary water management and environmental data use of Lake Peipsi - Programme
May 26 - June 6, 2008, the City of Pskov, Russia
GIS-Training for Specialists of the State Environmental Organizations
Work package 3. Reconstruction of sewage treatment works in settlement of Pskovkirpich (Pskov City Area). Pskovkirpich
is a settlement of Pskov City with population of 1200 people is located
on the river Cheryokha which flows to the Velikaya river and then to
the Pskov lake. Domestic sewage from Pskovkirpich and industrial sewage
from a factory "Pskovkirpich" located in the settlement is sent to
the treatment plant. The sewage from the factory in volume of 20 m3/
day, polluted with suspended substances (industrial sewage) comes to the
treatment plant. The role of the treatment plant is in cessation of
untreated sewage discharge to the river Cheryokha and later to the
Velikaya river. At the moment sewage after treatment does not meet
HELCOM requirements.
Reconstruction of sewage treatment works in settlement of Pskovkirpich (Pskov City Area) contains of the following phases: 1) Design work 2) Building and assembly jobs 3) Balancing and commissioning.
Work package 4: Information dissemination and networking between different stakeholders. The
aim of the WP is to promotion of cooperation among Russian and Estonian
local, regional authorities, other stakeholders and to improve
information exchange across the border. The WP activities provide Lake
Peipsi regional information also for the wider audience.
The WP contains of the following components
- Project leaflet will be printed in Estonian, Russian and English languages
- Electronic information list provides information on Lake Peipsi regional development, environmental etc issues
- Print of Guide on Eco-trail in the Ramsar wetland site "Pskov-Chudskoye lakeside lowland", to promote the nature tourism on the Russian side of the border area and to popularize the values of "Pskov-Chudskoye lakeside lowland", territory of international importance (Ramsar wetland site) among Estonian and Russian tourism companies and nature tourists. The guide will be in user-friendly format hence to raise public awareness and to attract visitors to the site, as well as to provide environmental/ educational institutions and local community with necessary materials - Pressrelease.
Other materials worked out during the project:
Survey of environmental projects implemented in the Estonian-Russian transboundary region in 2006-2008 (253 Kb)