1.1.1.WATER RESOURCES Croatia is endowed with relatively abundant water resources and characterized by major rivers and the karst coastal area. Water resources differ in size and distribution in time and space. Water management includes a number of activities and measures aimed at maintaining, improving and ensuring the unity of the water regime in a specific area. The water regime is underpinned by essential water management principles and plans. With a national territory of 87,609km2, Croatia is at the meeting point of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans and the Adriatic. The country straddles the border of two major catchment areas: the Danube Basin and the Adriatic Sea. Draining over 62 per cent of Croatia’s mainland, the Danube Basin covers the northern and central inland section of the country and is home to 69 per cent of the population. Croatian territory accounts for 4.4 per cent of the entire Danube Basin. The Croatian section is dominated by major rivers (and their tributaries), notably the Drava, the Sava and the Danube itself. Croatia has been a signatory to the Danube River Protection Convention since 1994.

1.1.2.WATER USE Croatia contains large quantities of both surface water and groundwater resources, although they are unevenly distributed. Low-lying parts of the Danube Basin are dominated by arable areas, while the upland regions of north and central Croatia are forested. The Basin is particularly unevenly populated. The majority live in the larger towns (density is greatest in Zagreb and Osijek) while other areas, particularly mountainous ones, are very sparsely populated. A major proportion of electricity generation comes from hydropower, with the Drava currently providing the largest capability. The most effective locations are already exploited; new sites could potentially cause significant environmental impacts. The Drava and the Danube are major routes for international transportation (80 per cent of goods shipped on inland waterways involve international trade) and the four-country Framework Agreement on the Sava Basin aims to further develop navigation. Discharging wastewater (both treated and untreated) into watercourses is common practice, but discharge direct into groundwater is prohibited. The majority of industrial facilities discharge into public sewerage systems; some of this discharge is then treated before release into watercourses. With regard to drinking water, 90 per cent of abstractions are from groundwater, with the remainder from rivers and reservoirs; there are few surface water intakes. An important measure for protecting drinking water aquifers is the adoption and enforcement of sanitary protection zones, a challenging task at most abstraction sites. Estimates indicate that 15 per cent of the mainland is at risk of flooding; however, the major part is protected to varying degrees. In the Sava Basin, due to the reduction in peak flows of flood waves in lowland flood storages, the middle basin plays a key role in protecting the Slavonian stretch and neighbouring countries. Measures based on lowland flood storages and expansion areas have enabled the preservation of environmentally favourable conditions on wide floodplains. In the Drava and Danube Basins, protection is based on embankments and wide foreshores.

1.2.WATER QUALITY, ECOSYSTEMS AND HUMAN HEALTH Croatia’s major environmental problems are: air pollution (from metallurgical plants) and the resulting acid rain, which damages forests; coastal pollution from industrial and domestic waste; landmine removal and reconstruction of infrastructure consequent to 1992-95 civil strife. With regard to organic load, of the 28 per cent of wastewater that is treated, 43 per cent undergoes preliminary/primary treatment and 57 per cent secondary treatment. The most serious problems occur in small settlements (up to 2,000 inhabitants), where 40 per cent of the population live. The situation in settlements with more than 10,000 inhabitants is considered satisfactory in the main. Around 44 per cent of all settlements with built sewerage systems have wastewater treatment plants. Of 109 plants, 38 involve preliminary treatment, 24 primary, 46 secondary and one tertiary. Changing economic conditions have meant many industries have constructed their own plants for preliminary treatment. At the same time, connection rates for public sewerage systems with central municipal plants have not increased at the rate predicted. Major parts of many settlements remain without connection to central treatment plants. With regard to agricultural pollution, and on the basis of processed data, the highest loads from diffuse sources are present in the Drava and Danube Basins and in the immediate Sava Basin.

(Water Risk Filter)