Component 3

Outcome 3. Political commitment reached among countries on implementing priority legal, institutional and policy reforms for the protection and equitable utilization of the karst aquifer system.

Component 3 of the DIKTAS Project refers to the harmonization of policies and priority reforms in order to reach political commitment among the countries on implementing priority legal, institutional and policy reforms for the protection and equitable utilization of the karst aquifer system.

The sixth Output of the Project under Component 3 is the establishment by the Participating Countries of ad hoc inter-ministerial committees which will focus on the harmonization of existing frameworks, and on priority reforms. The National Inter-ministerial Committees (NIC), will be composed of high level representatives of all the various ministries and agencies that are or should be involved in karst groundwater management (e.g.: Treasury, Water, Agriculture, Forestry, Energy, Physical Planning etc.). NICs will be established with the technical support of the project in all four countries in parallel with the creation of the Consultation and Information Exchange Mechanism (CIE). NICs and CIE together will represent the key technical-political interface of the project that will approve the TDA, process the endorsement of the SAP, and approve the Environmental Quality Objectives (EQO), Environmental Status Indicators and their long term monitoring.

The seventh Output of the Project under Component 3 will consist of the Strategic Action Program (SAP) for the DIKTAS, and the National Implementation Plans, which will be elaborated and adopted by the country at high ministerial level.

The DIKTAS SAP will detail policy, legal, and institutional reforms as well as priority investments and actions for the sustainable management of the Dinaric Karst Aquifer. It will be prepared in collaboration by the national inter-ministerial committees and the CIE with the technical support of the project. The SAP will be negotiated and endorsed at the highest ministerial level in all project countries. Following ministerial endorsement, each country will translate the DIKTAS – wide SAP into National Implementation Programs in order to specify the ways in which the country will implement the actions agreed in the SAP.

The eight Output of the Project under Component 3 is a Partnership Conference in order to consolidate international support for the implementation of the priority actions

The purpose of this output/activity is twofold:

1. to enhance the sustainability of the project outcomes by gathering and consolidating international technical and financial support around the SAP implementation process (NIPs);
2. to disseminate the results achieved by the project and the unique experience on karst hydrology accumulated by the Dinaric countries beyond the region in order to facilitate replication in other karst regions of the world.