The project is designed to create and feed a lasting and sustainable network among LAs and NGOs from Baltic/ EU (SE, EST, PL) and EaP countries, to share respective experiences, best practices and policies for successful EU environmental acquis implementation. This consortium will be able to prepare an overview on water management and related issues (sustainable tourism, flood management, external costs in agriculture, riparian management), create a needs assessment as a basis for joint future cooperation, as well as enable creation and later enhancement of various partnerships.

The EU members lessons learnt prove that achieving fully functioning water management system is a long process, while its success largely depends on praxis oriented cross and intra sectoral cooperation, both horizontal and vertical, and solid management capacities and expertise at the bottom implementation and operational level or chain of the water administration: one connecting the water administration with the water users.

In order to ensure practical use of the analysis of present situation and needs assessment, the project’s goal is preparation of at least three projects targeting the focus area that could be implemented by the earlier identified partnerships of the network organizations. Project proposals will be also based on the specified earlier areas of cooperation between the organizations, as well as on new ideas resulting from the meetings and joint online work of the representatives of these organizations. These projects will be created in such a way that includes needs and experiences of all of the partners within the consortium. Over the project’s course, it is also aimed to determine as many as possible potential funding sources and prepare project descriptions to be later used in the application processes to obtain funding.

The main assumption underlying the project is that its aims can be achieved in the best possible way only by cross-border cooperation and sharing best practices elaborated and implemented by several NGOs & LA from EU (SE, PL, EST) and EaP (UKR, MD, BY).

Development Policy Foundation is a key partner organisation of the Smart Water & Wetlands project, implemented by Tullstorpsån Ekonomisk förening and supported by Swedish Institute/ Svenska Institutet.