Post-flood work in the Haute Loire: Stop indiscriminate management and clear-cutting

In an open letter to those responsible for planning, delegating or carrying out work to remove logjams, SOS Loire Vivante welcomes the rapid decision by the French government to provide financial support to communes and communities of communes, but is also surprised at the way in which the work has been carried out.

In some sectors, clear-cutting was carried out without any distinction being made between vegetation that poses a problem for the flow of water and vegetation that is useful for the proper functioning of the environment and for maintaining the banks. Riverside vegetation is a habitat for numerous species, including the emblematic beaver, the otter and many birds. The lack of training or guidelines for the companies to whom the work is delegated is no longer possible.

In its letter, the association also asked that future logjam removal and, above all, maintenance projects in the Allier region be subject to precise specifications to take account of biodiversity issues, while respecting the environment and species protection laws.

Read letter (in French only)

Flood of 17 October 2024 in up part of the Loire

We were all impressed by this latest episode of flooding on the upstream Loire, which brought back a few memories.

Fortunately, once again, the arrangements at Brives-Charensac and the warning systems for major floods worked well.

The SOS Loire Vivante – ERN association is delighted to be behind this 4th solution.

In December, we will be organising a webinar on the subject of flood defences at Brives-Charensac, including an assessment. This will be an opportunity to find out more about the project.

In the meantime, for more information, you can read the brochure published in 2019 by the Ministry on the role of ecosystems in preventing natural hazards and page 11 dedicated to Brives-Charensac.

You can also read the article in L’Eveil about the flood of 17 October 2024.

Around a hundred Big Jumps recorded across Europe

The rivers were celebrated at 3pm on 14 July in over a hundred locations across Europe, mostly in fine weather.

New registrations are still coming in.
You can still label your event for 14 July or this weekend.

More info

logo Living Rivers Europe

Open letter: Nature-based water resilience cannot wait

The 🇪🇺 has dropped an essential plan to make Europe more water resilient 🤯

Floods & droughts are worsening, we must be prepared!

Today, 28 organisations, including NGOs, city networks, sustainable farmers, trade unions and professional associations, are calling on the @EUCommissionto put a nature-based EU Water Resilience Initiative back on the agenda before the 2024 🇪🇺 elections.

Presented as an end-of-term priority by the President of the European Commission, this communication was announced for 12 March, before finally being postponed to an unknown date. However in the face of more intense and frequent extreme weather events related to climate change, the EU should accelerate its action to address recurrent water scarcity and protect society against the effects of droughts, floods, wildfires and sea level rise. Achieving water resilience through nature based solutions should be a political priority under the next European Commission, with healthy freshwater and marine ecosystems – rivers, lakes, wetlands, deltas and coastal areas – at its core.

Read our open letter to @vonderleyen

Protest on the Albanian Shushica River: Vjosa National Park in danger

++ An entire valley stands up against the diversion of its water: On Saturday, 24 February, the mayors from the Shushica Valley gathered to protest the nature-destroying plans for the Shushica ++ Albanian government wants to divert the water from the Vjosa tributary ++ Vjosa National Park in danger after just one year ++

Press release from EuroNatur, Eco Albania and Riverwatch

Radolfzell, Vienna, Tirana, Kuç. 12 mayors and numerous other residents of the Shushica Valley and other regions of the Vjosa National Park, activists, lawyers and scientists gathered this morning in the village of Kuç on the banks of the Shushica River. They are protesting the plans of the government in Tirana to take the water from the Shushica and channel it to the Mediterranean coast 17 kilometres away in Himara to promote mass tourism there.

Officially declared in March 2023, the Vjosa Wild River National Park encompasses the Vjosa and its key tributaries, including the Shushica. However, less than a year later, the Shushica faces potential removal from protected status, leading to the “amputation” of the Vjosa National Park. The proposed withdrawal of 140 litres of water per second from the Shushica would completely dry up the upper river reaches during summer. This poses a significant threat to biodiversity and has severe repercussions for the local population in around 30 affected villages. The intervention may lead to the exclusion of the Shushica from the national park, as such measures are prohibited in this protection category, depriving the local community of the benefits of ecotourism.

Elidon Kamaj – Mayor of Brataj says : “We had high hopes for the national park as we anticipated it would boost economic development. Given our region’s challenges with emigration, establishing the national park held the promise of transformative change for us. However, if our water is now taken away and Shushica loses its national park status, our economic future will be at stake.”

The German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and the Western Balkan Investment Framework (WBIF) are financing the project, and the Austrian company STRABAG is carrying out the construction work. The ministries’ approvals and the financing were based on a completely flawed environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA). The consequences of the project for the Shushica were not analysed, and the people living along the Shushica were not informed. National and international scientists who reviewed these analyses concluded “…the results are misleading and incorrect.” (see attachement).

“We won’t stand by as our water is stolen from us. This project was never communicated to us; its existence only came to light when the construction equipment showed up. We won’t tolerate our water being taken away, and we are prepared to take action to halt the construction.” More than 50 residents filed a lawsuit against this project together with the Albanian nature conservation organisation EcoAlbania. The first court hearing is still pending, declares Astrit Balilaj – Mayor of Kuçi.

“The risk lies in the potential for the water diversion on the Shushica to set a precedent. The actions unfolding today on the Shushica might repeat tomorrow in other sections of the national park. The credibility of the entire Wild River National Park is at stake,” says Olsi Nika, Executive Director of EcoAlbania.

“The Wild River National Park is based on a largely natural, undisturbed water balance in its network of veins. This is what makes this area so unique, which is why people from all over Europe come here. This diversion project, therefore, jeopardises the entire national park. Germany and the WBIF must withdraw from the project if Albania does not stop the construction work immediately and order a real EIA,” says Ulrich Eichelmann, Executive Director of Riverwatch.

“The Albanian government has probably assumed that we will turn a blind eye to one or two nature-destroying projects in return for the designation of the Vjosa National Park, but we will not compromise. We will not give up until the Vjosa and its tributaries are truly safe!” says Annette Spangenberg, Head of Nature Conservation at EuroNatur.

The joint demands of the local residents, mayors, scientists and activists can be summarised as follows:

  1. Halt construction immediately.
  2. Conduct a new environmental impact assessment.
  3. Identify and analyse alternative water resources for the coastal area around Himara as part of the EIA, with the help of national and international experts.

Background information:

– Joint press release by EuroNatur, Eco Albania and Riverwatch,

– In March 2023, the Vjosa National Park was established in Albania, Europe’s first wild river conservation area, which encompasses a total of 404 kilometres of the Vjosa river network with its tributaries Shushica, Drino and Bënça. After less than a year, the national park is now in danger; construction work is already well advanced and is due to be completed in August this year.

– The nature-destroying project has so far also been financed with German taxpayers’ money, namely with funds from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF).

– EIA & position paper available on demand

– The “Save the Blue Heart of Europe” campaign aims to protect rivers with particularly high natural value on the Balkan Peninsula, which are threatened by more than 3,400 hydropower projects and other nature-destroying plans. The campaign is coordinated by the international nature conservation organisations Riverwatch and EuroNatur and implemented together with partner organisations in the Balkan countries. The local partner in Albania is EcoAlbania. Further information can be found at https://balkanrivers.net

– The campaign is supported by the Manfred-Hermsen-Stiftung, among others.

NGOs call for new EU Climate and Water Resilience Law

On 26 October, a coalition of six NGOs grouped under the umbrella of Living Rivers Europe published a position paper calling for a more resilient Europe.

Read press release from WWF :

“Six NGOs call for a new EU Climate and Water Resilience Law to address the climate and water crises”
A coalition of six NGOs is asking for a new “EU Climate and Water Resilience Law” that prioritises restoring and protecting freshwater ecosystems to ensure clean and sufficient water for drinking and sustainable farming. The NGO call comes as the European Economic and Social Committee holds a high-level “Call for an EU Blue Deal” conference today, and it follows the European Commission’s announcement that it will present an Initiative for Water Resilience in the first quarter of 2024.

Freshwater ecosystems have been overexploited for decades, severely degrading their health and undermining Europe’s resilience to the fast-growing consequences of climate change: increased drought, floods and fires, while also driving massive biodiversity and habitat loss. The new EU Climate and Water Resilience Law supported by the NGOs would create a network of natural Water Reserves to protect critical water supplies and their catchments in water-stressed areas, provide adequate finance for protecting and restoring natural “sponge” landscapes, and contribute to setting sectoral water efficiency and water abstraction targets for all water users at basin level.

“Rather than calling for an EU Blue Deal which relies heavily on grey infrastructure, we need to continue implementing the Green Deal and accelerate efforts to safeguard water for nature and for people,” says Claire Baffert, Senior Water Policy Officer at WWF’s European Policy Office and Chair of the Living Rivers Europe coalition. “We urge the European Commission to draw up a new EU Climate and Water Resilience Law that ensures clean and sufficient water for people by securing healthy freshwater ecosystems for nature.”

The NGOs caution against turning to concrete infrastructure in a bid to temporarily fix water shortage and flood problems: “Building new dams, channelling riverbeds or implementing large-scale water transfers only increases our vulnerability to climate change impacts in the future. Instead, natural ecosystems including free-flowing rivers, restored floodplains, wetlands and peatlands need the space and freedom to do their job of absorbing, filtering and storing water, and providing vital habitats for nature,” Paul Brotherton, Freshwater Manager at Wetlands International Europe.

In the position paper for water resilience, the coalition also calls for the full enforcement of the Water Framework Directive, climate adaptation to be integrated into all EU policies and an end to subsidies that harm freshwater.

Download the document : https://wwfeu.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/climate-and-water-crisis-report_web-final.pdf

ERn France - Alexis Pasquet

the “Georges EMBLANC Award for River Culture ” : Announcement of the winners

Launched for the first time in 2019, the “Georges EMBLANC Award for River Culture, Flood Risk Prevention and Biodiversity”, jointly sponsored by ERN and the EPTB Seine Grands Lacs, aims to reward students, who have achieved during the last three years work on an educational project related to rivers, the topic flood / low water or biodiversity in wetlands and related topics such as climate change.
This prize also pays tribute to Georges EMBLANC, recognized expert of the professional and institutional circles for his knowledge on rivers and freshwater ecosystems. A man of value and conviction, Georges accidentally left us on March 11, 2017 and the prize that bears his name, comes to reward young people, students or professionals committed to serving others or for the protection of nature. This award continues the taste he had for transmitting and sharing knowledge and knowledge on topics that were important to him.

In total, a dozen applications were received and submitted to the jury. After difficult arbitrations given the quality of the files received, 3 laureates were appointed and are awarded their prize on June 4, in Paris, during the meeting between PAPI (Flood Prevention Action Programs). , in the presence of Nicole and Baptiste Emblanc, the wife and son of Georges Emblanc. All our congratulations go to:

– Noémie THOMAS, a graduate of INSA Strasbourg and the National School of Architecture of Strasbourg, winner of the first prize Georges Emblanc 2019 for her thesis on: “Water: urban planning tool for adaptation to change Exploration in the Greater East Region »

– Marion PERNEY, holds a master’s degree in architecture from Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), and from the Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering and Urbanism – LOCI Brussels, winner of the Second Prize Georges Emblanc 2019 for her dissertation « Resilience of a Floodable Territory – Between Surface and Soffit.

– Arnaud MANRY, graduate of the Master 2 IMSGA specialty “Management of crisis situations” University of Technology Troyes for his thesis “Extreme rain and rapid submersion: Social and economic solidarity in the service of resilience? “.

During the ceremony, the prizes were awarded to the winners by Frédéric MOLOSSI, president of the EPTB Seine Grands Lacs, Roberto EPPLE, president of ERN France and Daniel Marcovitch, co-president of the Mixed Floods Commission. A new edition of the Georges Emblanc Award will most likely be launched in 2020.

Success for ERNs 2nd Round Table about Floods and Biodiversity in Paris

90 people came to exchange Friday, November 9 in the prestigious hall of the great gallery of evolution at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris at the invitation of ERN France. A wide variety of institutional actors, associations, researchers, managers, … to try to better understand the many interactions between floods and biodiversity.

A complex subject, as yet little discussed, on which the dialogue has been rich and passionate. Once again, this round table shows the importance of the role of civil society, its ability to create links, to cross knowledge and practices, to confront approaches through dialogue.

Organized with the support of the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition.

The presentations (Powerpoint) can be ordered using infos @ ern.org

 

Beginning of Round Table – 09/11/2018 ©ERN France

Flood Risk in Paris (Seine River) – a new publication by ERN

In cooperation with “Seine Grand Lacs” and many other partners, ERN has published a 6 page document on the last flood in 2016. Download the document (in french only)