Proposed methodology for the assessment of groundwater chemical and quantitative status in the Republic of Belarus (in accordance with the principles of the EU Water Framework Directive)

Since 2018, the “European Union Water Initiative Plus for Eastern Partnership (EaP) Countries (EUWI+)” has been providing significant assistance in the development of a number of pilot projects focused on the phased implementation of the main provisions of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) related to groundwater monitoring in the Republic of Belarus. The implementation began with the identification (delineation) of groundwater bodies, their characterization, assessment and improvement of groundwater monitoring networks and several groundwater investigations in order to collect the necessary data to assess groundwater risk and status. Just recently, transboundary cooperation with Ukraine, resulted in the identification of common transboundary groundwater corridors and the proposal of a monitoring network for transboundary groundwater.

The next logical step in the implementation of the WFD is the assessment of the quantitative and qualitative groundwater status, which confirms whether the environmental objectives of the WFD for groundwater have been achieved. Thus, in 2020, a draft methodology for assessing the groundwater status in the Republic of Belarus in accordance with the principles of the WFD was developed.

The elaborated draft methodology defines criteria for the assessment of groundwater quantitative and qualitative status (“good” and “poor”) and the assessment of the risk (“at risk” and “not at risk”) whether the environmental objectives of the WFD cannot be achieved. The criteria consider all relevant and related national legislation and legal provisions which are in force and the assessments follow step-by-step implementation procedures.

A preliminary testing of the proposed methodology and a list of open issues that need to be solved complete the work.

The proposed methodological approach is a first attempt and needs to be thoroughly tested with available groundwater monitoring data in the coming months, both for groundwater bodies with dense monitoring networks and groundwater bodies with limited groundwater monitoring, Finally, the approach needs to be intensively discussed at national level before being implemented into national legislation.