„Water status was assessed on the basis of the data submitted in the year 2010 and one took into consideration, above all, ecological quality characteristics, such as aquatic vegetation, fish fauna, nutrient conditions in the water etc. The assessment has been provided based on water bodies or drainage basins. “One can deduce from the assessment that slightly more than 70% of Estonian waters are in a good natural status,” said the Minister of the Environment Keit Pentus. Of rivers, all whose drainage basins’ area is over 10 km˛ have been assessed; of lakes, all larger lakes whose area is more than 50 hectares are under observation. According to Keit Pentus, the real-time evaluation is very favourable to Estonia, but our good position is also somewhat supported by the fact that some other countries did not manage to submit assessments in terms of all data nor finish status surveys on time. „In spite of that, our water bodies’ status can be compared both to Finland and Latvia, where the impact of human activity on water status is relatively low. Resulting from the load of human activity, one does not achieve a good natural status in about fifth of our water bodies even not before the year 2021,“ noted Pentus. The individuality of Estonian water bodies is their naturalness and pristiness, at the same time also their extremely large sensitivity in terms of every kind of pollutants, because small water bodies do not tolerate pollution. The main deteriorators of water status in Europe are excessive abstraction of water from water bodies, pollution from agriculture-related activities and the high concentration of several hazardous and toxic substances in natural waters. Estonia’s three largest water problems are related to the pollution resulting from sewage treatment plants and agriculture as well as impoundment or damming up of water. For the organizing of water conservation, three water management areas or river basin districts have been formed in Estonia — East-Estonian river basin district, West-Estonian river basin district and Koiva river basin district. In each river basin management plan, there are set activities for the improvement of water bodies’ status. The implementation of the management plans is organized by the Ministry of the Environment, the Environmental Board and working groups based on river basin districts. Read more on the assessment here. |
