Every year, World Water Monitoring Day highlights the importance of understanding the state of our rivers, lakes and groundwater. Whether managing droughts and floods, protecting drinking water sources or responding to pollution incidents, better decisions depend on reliable data.
EU long-standing support to the Eastern Partnership countries
Over the past decade, the European Union has supported the Eastern Partnership countries in strengthening their water monitoring systems. The EU-funded programmes EUWI+ (2016-2019) and EU4Environment – Water and Data (2020-2024) laid the foundations for stronger monitoring across the region. Laboratories were renovated and equipped, specialists were trained to analyse EU priority pollutants, and thousands of new datasets on rivers, groundwater and coastal waters were produced.
The EU-funded EU4Green Recovery East programme builds on these achievements and focuses on further aligning national monitoring systems with EU standards.
Strengthening water monitoring through established and new methods
Reliable in-situ monitoring remains essential. EU4Green Recovery East continues to support laboratories through proficiency testing schemes, helping to ensure that water analyses remain accurate and comparable with international standards.
At the same time, the programme is exploring ways to complement conventional field sampling and laboratory analysis with satellite observations and remote sensing. These technologies can provide additional information on water resources, including water levels, drought and evapotranspiration across different land-use categories.
Strengthening coordination and access to water data
EU4Green Recovery East helps partner countries make better use of the information they already collect. Water quality and water quantity data are often produced by different institutions, using different systems and formats. Better coordination, data sharing and interoperability are therefore essential for integrated water management and for aligning national practices with the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD).
Across Armenia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, the programme supports stronger cooperation between institutions involved in water monitoring and data management. Coordination platforms are being established to facilitate dialogue, support the alignment of monitoring approaches with WFD standards and encourage knowledge sharing.
The programme also supports digital platforms and interoperable databases, making it easier for institutions to exchange environmental information and build a shared understanding of water resources.
By supporting both established and innovative monitoring methods, strengthening cooperation between data producers and users and improving access to shared environmental information, the EU4Green Recovery East programme helps the Eastern Partnership countries turn environmental data into better decisions for protecting their water resources.
