Focus Group Meetings to discuss Strategic Action Programme for Drin Basin

The purpose of the Focus Group Meetings was to inform the development of a Strategic Action Programme for the Drin Basin. This is a document which sets out the priority issues in the basin and how they can be addressed.

The priority issues were first identified through a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) of the Drin Basin. The five key areas were identified as:

1. Deterioration of water quality;

 2. Variability of the hydrological regime;

 3. Biodiversity Degradation;

 4. Sediment Transport; and,

 5. Climate Variability and Change (a cross-cutting issue that impacts all of the above).

The participants of the Focus Group Meetings were tasked with exploring elements of these issues and rating them from high to low.

The Focus Group Meetings, along with two additional meetings, ensured a total of 170 stakeholders were consulted on the issues.

Key themes to come out of the discussions were:

1)     The need for improved information and data exchange between institutions;

2)     Increased monitoring, for example, of lake water quality and groundwater;

3)     Protecting biodiversity from invasive species; and,

4)     Decreasing agricultural pollution.