CBC partnership Tsenovo-Hotarele-Greaca against nature risks

The effects of climate change are being felt in the cross-border area: dry, hot summers and winters with high volumes of snow; areas with desertification tendencies or floods, landslides. The lack of strategic interventions and investments in the last decades has led to an ever-increasing impact of the above indicated natural hazards on the cross-border communities and environment. Through the development and adoption of a joint cross-border partnership, first, the project is addressing these effects and challenges upon the communities and environment of Tsenovo, Hotarele and Greaca, second, it improves and strengthens the beneficiaries’ coordination, planning and risk mitigation capacity. Furthermore, such a partnership will help reach one of the Programme’s specific objectives to improve the quality of the common risk management in the project partners’ area and, furthermore, spread awareness on the hazards and risk and on the measures for their mitigation, management, reduction within its communities. The main objective of the project is to improve joint risk management in the CBC area through the development and adoption of a joint cross-border partnership between Tsenovo Municipality, Hotarele Commune and Greaca Commune so that they can better co-ordinate and react efficiently in emergency situations caused by natural disasters, such as flood, fire, heat waves, landslides, rain/snow storms, etc. The project indicative budget is around 820,000 Euro. The continuation of the implementation of previous programming period projects (flood prevention measures, development of risk management system and cross-border rescue services/system) is a great opportunity for a cost-effective and rapid improvement of some key aspects in the field of hazard management and emergency response. Thus, turning joint disaster risk prevention and management into one of the main cross-border priorities. The supported project will use the cross-border cooperation framework to contribute to higher disaster resilience and higher mitigation capacity regarding the impacts of the climate change. They focus on both the joint planning and joint implementation of measures to monitor, prevent and mitigate the disaster risks. The cooperation in this field is essential as the geography of the cross-border area and the associated disaster risks (big river floods and landslides, heat waves and fires, earthquakes, etc.) indicates a clear added-value in tackling together both the planning and the implementation of mitigation and disaster resilience measures. Such actions will, first, increase co-ordination and efficient reactions of the authorities in the emergency situations caused by natural disasters (flood, fire, heat waves, rain/snow storms, etc.) through the development and adoption of a joint cross-border partnership, second, set up and integrate harmonized standards and systems for better forecasting and managing natural and anthropic hazards in the CBC area (flood, earthquake, fire, storms, etc.) through the elaboration of a common strategy on better co-ordination and efficient reactions of a joint cross-border partnership between the project partners, third, set up of harmonised integrated tools for risk prevention and mitigation through the development of a joint mechanism for risk prevention, mitigation and coordination, forth, exchange of experience and knowledge, including raising awareness in the field of efficient risk prevention and management in the cross-border area (including training and learning programmes, community-based training initiatives, information sheets, brochures about natural and anthropic hazards) targeted at specific target groups (children/youth, development planners, emergency managers, local government officials, etc.) through the organization of 3 awareness raising campaigns and 3 trainings on the hazards and risk and on the measures for their mitigation, management, reduction. The implementation of the proposed project will contribute to the following Programme output and result indicators: Population benefiting from flood protection measures (10,975: Tsenovo – 5,174; Hotarele - 3,501; Greaca - 2,300), Population benefiting from forest fire protection measures (10,975), Number of joint partnerships in the field of joint early warning and emergency response (1), The quality of the joint risk management in the CBC area (3). During the project’s lifetime, the following new solutions will be elaborated, developed, purchased, organized and formed to help the project beneficiaries tackle the identified common challenges and provide opportunities for their communities and environments to grow in a smart and sustainable manner: 1) A common strategy on better co-ordination and efficient reactions of a joint CBC partnership between the partners will be elaborated, guiding the beneficiaries to increase their co-ordination and efficient reactions in emergency situations caused by natural disasters (flood, fire, heat waves, rain/snow storms, etc.). 2) A joint mechanism for risk prevention, mitigation and coordination will be developed, consisting of an IT platform that will provide to the partners and Cross-border Centre for Management and Coordination of the Interventions (CBCMCI) which ensures coordinated prevention and management of the risk situations in Giurgiu–Ruse area. Relevant information in the field of joint early warning and emergency response will be discussed, events or actions foreseen to take place or, if needed, request for support from the partners or CBCMCI. A joint database containing types of resulting damages after each event will be created so that the partners are able to jointly develop new sets of instruments that will further minimize damages or, if case, diminish intervention time. 3) Specialized intervention equipment will be purchased to help all beneficiaries fulfil their responsibilities to analyse and mitigate risk situations through local committees and volunteer formations, imposed to them by national law. 4) 3 awareness raising campaigns and 3 trainings on the hazards and risk, and on the measures for their mitigation, management, reduction will be organized at each partners’ premises so to increase the emergency situations management efficiency of local communities by creating and stimulating a participatory attitude. 5) A joint cross-border partnership between the partners will be formed, helping them establish a new joint CBC approach to tackle the identified natural disaster challenges. The contribution that the proposed project brings to increasing the quality of the joint risk management in the targeted cross-border communities is confirmed by Giurgiu Inspectorate for Emergency Situations which supports the undertaken actions to improve the joint risk management in Tsenovo-Greaca-Hotarele area through support letter No. 2606826/09.05.2017.

The project is finalized and the main achievements are as follows: - 1 joint partnership have been concluded between the 3 Project Partners; - The Strategy on better co-ordination and efficient reactions of a joint CBC partnership have been elaborated; - 3 round tables have been organised, one on 09.12.2019 in Tsenovo Municipality, another one on 12.12.2019 in Hotarele Commune and the third one on 13.12.2019 in Greaca Commune for Key stakeholders (regional and local authorities and institutions, etc.) within the Ruse-Giurgiu cross-border region; - All of the intervention equipment in the field of hazard management and disaster resilience foreseen within the project have been delivered to the Beneficiaries, namely: 1. On behalf of LB - a specialized automobile with a 4x4 wheel formula, high clearance to perform tasks in severe weather conditions and heavy terrains, flooded areas, forest areas and fires, along with a blade for snow removal, a sandblasting device and a special equipment that will be used to clean drainage and irrigation channels, ditches, banquets, drainage, grass and shrub removal, and maintenance of fire bands; 2. On behalf of B2 - a backhoe and a tractor equipped with all the necessary technical accessories in order to intervene in case of floods; 3. On behalf of B3 – a tractor, along with a snowblade, snow blower and a trailer; - The Common Study on risk management in the Romania-Bulgaria cross-border region have been elaborated; - The project web platform that will provide assistance for risk prevention, mitigation and coordination have been developed and can be found on http://teoszansoft.ro/tact/;

Before the implementation of the proposed project, due to insufficient investments and measures made against natural hazards at local level, the project beneficiaries do not have the necessary tools (human and equipment capacity) and solutions (joint mechanisms) to tackle effectively and qualitatively the identified common challenges separately and provide opportunities for their communities and environment to grow. Each beneficiary has local plans for risk management, however, they lack joint coordination and planning. Through the development and adoption of a joint cross-border partnership for better co-ordination and efficient reactions of Tsenovo Municipality, Hotarele Commune and Greaca Commune in emergency situations caused by natural disasters, the quality of the joint risk management in the CBC area is going to be improved. After the implementation of the project proposal, the adopted joint partnership will have the following various number of tools and solutions to tackle the identified common weaknesses (high degree of vulnerability to climate change; low adaptive and mitigation capacity; the average annual temperature indicates a significantly increasing tendency; erosion of the sea coast and river banks) and threats (damage in the existing infrastructures because of floods and storms; more frequent and longer periods of drought; low mitigation capacity of climate change can increase the degree of vulnerability to fluctuations in energy cost and security; human and infrastructural losses) of the cross-border area and turn them into opportunities (reduction of the impact of climate change in natural environment; increase of the adaptive capacity; support of the preventive actions; mitigation of sea coast and river bank erosion; awareness raising related to climate change) in a smart and sustainable manner: 1) A common strategy on better co-ordination and efficient reactions of a joint cross-border partnership between Tsenovo Municipality, Hotarele Commune and Greaca Commune will be elaborated, guiding the beneficiaries to increase their co-ordination and efficient reactions in emergency situations caused by natural disasters (flood, fire, heat waves, rain/snow storms, etc.). It will describe and include information regarding the participating parties, cooperation goals, legal framework, community analyses, types of risks and participating forces, guidelines for prevention and intervention, an action plan (incl. joint intervention activities in the fields of competence of local committees and volunteer formations for emergency situations, notifications and information flow, border crossing, mission execution, management and coordination), logistics, regulation methodology (incl. what needs to follow after project implementation), other. The document will be in line with the joint intervention plans agreed at county/district level among emergency situation institutions. During the elaboration of a common strategy, 3 round tables (2, RO; 1, BG) will be organized and key stakeholders (NGOs, national, regional and local authorities, research institutions, universities, etc.) will be invited to take part in the round tables and share their expertise and good practices. This overall cross-border approach applies the principles of local ownership, expertise and sustainability. Furthermore, the selected method ensures broad dissemination of project results. 2) A joint mechanism for risk prevention, mitigation and coordination will be developed, consisting of an IT platform. First, it will provide access to urgent information from responsible institutions (NMA, MoI, etc.) to target groups or other. Second, the platform will have a login section to a forum where access will be provided to the partners and Cross-border Centre for Management and Coordination of the Interventions (CBCMCI) which ensures coordinated prevention and management of the risk situations in Giurgiu–Ruse area, due to the fact that the partners will permanently be in touch with the institution. Within the forum section relevant information in the field of joint early warning and emergency response will be discussed, events or actions foreseen to take place or, if needed, request for support from the partners or CBCMCI. Third, a joint database containing types of resulting damages after each event will be created so that the partners are able to jointly develop new sets of instruments that will further minimize damages or, if case, diminish intervention time. 3) Specialized intervention equipment will be purchased to help all project beneficiaries fulfill their responsibilities to analyze and mitigate risk situations through local committees and volunteer formations, imposed to them by national law. Unfortunately, limited or no resources for emergency situations are provided by both nations’ state budgets, thus, the quantity and quality of the equipment owned by the partners is by far insufficient to tackle local risk situations that endanger the well-being of their communities and environments. Moreover, instead of using local emergency logistics, equipment from further distances (with longer intervention time) must be mobilized, endangering human lives and increasing material damages. 4) 3 awareness raising campaigns and 3 trainings on the hazards and risk and on the measures for their mitigation, management, reduction will be organized at each project partners’ premises so to increase the emergency situations management efficiency of local communities by creating and stimulating a participatory attitude. The common strategy will provide basis on how to address and involve the cross-border stakeholders. These CBC events will help them better learn and understand what needs to be done before, during and after the occurrence of emergency situations, like alarming systems, adaptive behaviors and reaction in emergency situations, first aid, support resources, rescue facility services available, etc.