The application phase of the Catchment Support Programme has been successfully completed, now the expert work can begin!

With great interest, the application phase of the Catchment Support Programme, launched in April 2023 within the framework of the so-called “In cooperation for climate-conscious river basin management” LIFE LOGOS 4 WATERS project, was successfully completed.

The main objective of the Programme is to encourage and facilitate cooperation between neighbouring municipalities located in the same river basin in the field of climate adaptation. The Programme contributes the identification of widespread, catchment-level use of small-scale, natural water retention methods, thereby laying the foundations for long-term cooperation between the municipalities participating in the consortium. This is particularly important for environmental challenges that can only be tackled through networked, integrated solutions, regardless of administrative boundaries.

Any municipality in Hungary could apply for the Programme as a part of a consortium, and the possibility for county councils to participate in the consortia was also open. The deadline for online submission of application was 30 June 2023 to the Association of Climate Friendly Municipalities, which organisation launched the call for applications. A total of 39 consortia submitted their documents in the first application round, representing a total amount of around 200 municipal consortia members (195 municipalities and 5 county councils), covering almost 30% of the country’s districts.

We were pleased to see that the applications received under the Catchment Support Programme were of a high quality and also showed wide-ranging cooperation. The high number of applications received for the Programme was partly due to the national series of events organised in the spring of 2023, which gave a special focus on the call for proposals. In addition, local municipalities increasingly sense the effects of climate change and experience that natural water retention methods can be effective tools in a competition for negative climate trends.

Members of the municipal and county consortia of the applications submitted under the Catchment Support Programme (own editing)

From the first application round of the Programme, 10 proposals were selected for the second application round. In the second round of applications, applicants had to submit more detailed documents, focusing more and more on their actual water-related problems. In both application rounds, the technical evaluation of the proposals was carried out by the partner organisations involved in the LIFE LOGOS 4 WATERS project (the Association of Climate Friendly Municipalities, the Hungarian Chamber of Engineers, WWF Hungary and the Coordination Office for Municipalities of the Ministry of Public Administration and Regional Development (former Ministry of Interior)), and at the end of the evaluation process, the Integrated Support Board, composed of the professional organisations, decided on the 5 selected proposals. The municipalities leading the selected consortia are the following: the Municipality of Karcsa, the Municipality of Kötegyán, the Municipality of Monostorapáti, the Municipality of Szászvár, the Municipality of Szügy.

The application phase of the Programme has been successfully completed, so professional work can start with the winner consortia. Under the Programme, the winning consortia will receive comprehensive expert support to mitigate or solve the problems outlined in their application. At the end of the Programme, winner municipalities will receive a set of expert concepts and proposals, which will examine how the problems affecting the catchment area can be addressed effectively, and detect that at which intervention points and with what small-scale, nature-based solutions can be made. We hope that through the professional concepts developed for the winner consortia, we will stimulate cooperation and strategy development at catchment-level across the country and contribute to the wider uptake of nature-based solutions and natural water retention methods, as the professional concepts developed in this project can serve as a good example for other municipal partnerships. In addition, the concepts developed by the winner consortia can serve as an excellent professional basis for participating in further tenders and obtaining funding.

Work with the winner consortia has already started: in January 2024, the colleagues of the LIFE LOGOS 4 WATERS project partnership visited the municipalities participating in the consortia. During the meetings, the heads of the municipalities, mayors, representatives of the organisations concerned and local experts presented in detail the water management problems related to their catchment area. The dialogue thus initiated is an effective tool for understanding the challenges of climate change in these areas concerned and for laying the foundations for the actual expert work. Following the meetings, a detailed work plan will be drawn up, which will serve as a basis for the preparation of the technical concepts and studies by 31 December 2024.

Kick-off meeting in Szászvár (16.01.2024) (photo by Bettina Hugyecz)

Kick-off meeting in Karcsa (18.01.2024) (photo by Dalma Varga)

Kick-off meeting in Kötegyán (24.01.2024) (photo by Tamás Polgár)

Kick-off meeting in Monostorapáti (26.01.2024) (photo by Dr. Petra Szatzker)

Kick-off meeting in Szügy (30.01.2024) (photo by Dalma Varga)

        The winner consortium applications