Hungarian water survey is EU first

The national monitoring programme will help Hungary implement the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD).

Project leader Zsuzsa Steindl said, “This is the first survey in the EU, on a nationwide scale, in which the WFD’s biological monitoring requirements will be implemented. The outcomes of the project will therefore be of major interest to other member states as well.”

According to the WFD, which came in force in December 2000, good surface water status has to be reached before the end of 2015 in all EU member states. Biological quality of rivers lakes and groundwater is the major objective of the WFD.

The contract, worth €1 million was awarded to international engineering consultants Arcadis, Mott Macdonald of the UK and the Danish Hydrological Institute.