Denmark is a country characterized by water with thousands of kilometres of coastline, streams and countless lakes.
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But the aquatic environment is under pressure. The government will take action to create a better aquatic environment. Therefore, the river basin management plans for 2021-2027 are now being consulted.
In Denmark, the water is never far away.
Over one million danes live less than a kilometre from fjords or open seas, and our country is intersected by thousands of kilometres of watercourses and filled with lakes and green river valleys. But beneath the water's surface, life is cramped.
Only 5 out of 986 lakes and 5 out of 109 coastal waters are in good ecological condition, according to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
The government therefore proposes river basin management plans with initiatives of almost DKK 5.4 billion ($823 million) and a number of concrete efforts in the work to ensure a better aquatic environment.
These include, for example, the restoration of watercourses and lakes, improved wastewater treatment for unsoilt properties and fewer overflows of waste water, as well as less nitrogen and phosphorus emissions.
"We must take good care of our aquatic environment and we remain far from the goal. River basin management plans are a cornerstone of the work to improve the aquatic environment.
We propose concrete measures where we know the means and know that they work. At the same time, we are launching a number of development projects in places where we lack knowledge about, for example, condition, sources and instruments. Overall, we spend more than DKK 5 billion to improve the status of the aquatic environment in streams, lakes, coastal waters and groundwater," says Environment Minister Lea Wermelin.
In the year 2000, EU Member States adopted the Water Framework Directive, which aims to ensure that all water achieves 'good condition'.
Therefore, Denmark and the other Member States must draw up river basin management plans and related action programmes to ensure that environmental objectives for watercourses, lakes, coastlines and groundwater are achieved. The government has committed to achieving the objectives of the Water Framework Directive by 2027.
"There is a great and long term work ahead of us in creating a good aquatic environment for animals, plants and people. We must do this together.
"That is why I am pleased that the government and the contracting parties to the Agricultural Agreement in October confirmed that we need to improve the state of our aquatic environment.
"We must ensure the full implementation of the Water Framework Directive, and with the Agreement on Agriculture we have established an ambitious response to the greatest pressure factor, namely nitrogen emissions," says Environment Minister Lea Wermelin.
With the agreement on the green conversion of Danish agriculture, concrete efforts have been agreed corresponding to a reduction in emissions of approx. 10,400 tons in the coastal waters and fjords where there is a need.
The 2023/2024 revisit will decide on tackling the mancophaus in order to comply with the Water Framework Directive. Similarly, for the other hydrological schemes, the remaining efforts will also have to be considered.
Here it will be possible to act on the basis of the development initiatives that are now being implemented among other things, a tougher response to environmentally hazardous substances.
Municipalities and water councils have made recommendations to improve the environmental status of the watercourses. By restoring the watercourses and removing the barriers, the watercourses become more alive as the living conditions of fish and small animals improve.
The actions carried out on the basis of river basin management plans not only contribute to the achievement of the environmental objectives of the Water Framework Directive they contribute much more widely.
For example, for the work to achieve a number of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals for sustainable development, clean water, climate action, marine life and the safeguarding of biodiversity on land and in water. ■