Description
The aim of the project is to foster and ensure effective public involvement in the catchment area of the lake Balaton into the planning of the 2nd National Water Basin Management Plan of Hungary for the period of 2016-2021. Local public will be adressed by a set of campaings and events, and to collect opinions of the local stakeholders public forums will be organized.
Summary of project results
The project aimed at promoting and ensuring public participation in the second cycle of river basin management planning (VGT-2) in case of the Balaton catchment area so that the local population could contribute to the otherwise formal consultation with well-founded comments and suggestions. The promoter actively cooperated with other non-governmental organizations (mainly environmental NGOs) active on the field of VGT-2, which consisted of continuous contact and dozens of personal meetings, conferences and other events. In order to inform and engage the public with participation, three leaflets and a more detailed brochure was prepare, newsletters were distributed, an information day was held in 20 settlements on the 2015 World Water Day, and five residential forums were organized. Throughout the project, opinions collected on different channels were represented to the designers and decision makers in official forums, events and direct communication. As a result of the project, the implementers were able to focus attention on the related issue, provide effective consultation opportunities, and represent and display civilian opinions in the decision-making process. At the same time, the success of the project is limited: an indeed wide-scale and thorough public participation could have not been ensured because the official plans were published too late with a very short consultation deadline. That undermined the implementation of the communication/mobilization campaign to get executed according to the original plans. Though comments and recommendations on behalf of the local residents were collected and transferred, but the submitted comments came in a larger extent from a narrower range of experts/quasi-experts, not so much from the population (for example, modifying legislation, clarifying basic definitions of water use and legal regulation, drifting demands).
Summary of bilateral results