Do Water Management and Climate-Adapted Management of Wetlands Interfere in Practice? Lessons from the Biebrza Valley, Poland - Wetlands and Water Framework Directive: Protection, Management and Climate Change - page 59

the increase of sewage and waste management, aims at promotion of sustainable
agriculture, spatial planning, forestry and environmental conservation as well,
describing particular individual actions located in de

ned parts of the catchment.

Actions described, re ecting the planning and application of water resources man-

agement by the National Water-Environment Programme for the region of the
catchment of Biebrza, are divided into certain groups. Altogether there are 275
actions de

fl

ned. Analysis of this document revealed that the major attention is put to
the conservation and increase of qualitative status of water bodies (Table 4.1 ,
Fig. 4.3 a). Sewage and waste management measures are oriented in principle at the
extension and enhancement of municipal sewage systems, collection of leakages
from the industrial sites, construction of sewage treatment plants, inventories of septic
tanks and the liquidation of the illegal waste disposals and land lls combined with the

restoration of the present ones. Comparing to the other actions de

ned by the National
Water-Environment Programme referring to the space of the catchment of the river
Biebrza, such as the ones re ecting agriculture, direct water management (e.g.

planning of the regional conditions of water use), spatial planning, forestry and
environmental conservation with special regard to Natura 2000, actions oriented at
sewage and waste management cover more than a half of all the actions described by
this document (Fig. 4.3 a).
Actions referring to the agriculture, provided by the National Water-Environ-
ment Programme, aim at activities implementing the stakeholder dialogue,
including popularization of modern, competitive and sustainable agricultural
practices and capacity building towards the implementation of the European
Union

fl

s agro-environmental schemes. Direct measures related to water manage-
ment in the catchment of Biebrza are oriented at preparation of Regional Regula-
tions of use of Waters (in Polish: Warunki Korzystania z W

'

d Regionu Wodnego).
Worth noticing is the single action oriented at the recovery of longitudinal river
continuity, which is the

ó

k (Rudzki
Canal), in the close neighborhood of the Biebrza Valley. One can regret that among
the 275 actions there is only one measure of this type planned, especially facing the
number of functioning weirs, dams and spillways that ef

fish-pass construction in the course of the river E ł

ciently affect longitudinal
ecological continuity of aquatic ecosystems in the catchment of Biebrza.
Still, however, the planned fish pass is to be constructed with the newly-designed

weir, which does not allow to conclude that particular actions were undertaken in
order to bring back the former longitudinal continuity of rivers in the region ana-
lyzed. In the other words

the negative role of obstacles in the courses of rivers in
the catchment of Biebrza was not anticipated, so their in

—

sh and
macroinvertebrates is not going to be mitigated in result of the WFD implemen-
tation in this area. Although the wish to construct one

fl uence on

fish pass allows to foresee
growing interest of water-policy implementing authorities in assuring ecological
connectivity of river continua, the major attention should be paid to multiple
constructions (weirs and dams) which were designed in the past and underpin the
fragmentation of river continua in the region.
National Water-Environment Programme provides also the measures re

fl ecting

spatial planning, expressed as preparation of local strategies. In terms of re fl ectance