A second volume of guidance on River Basin Management Planning has been published by Defra and the Welsh Assembly Government for consultation.
The guidance outlines the role of environmental quality standards in implementing the Water Framework Directive (WFD), explains the range of new standards that have been developed by the UK environment agencies, and considers the way in which the Directive's costs and benefits should be balanced. This complements the first volume of guidance, which was published in September 2006 after similar consultation, and which covers the content of the plans.
The WFD is a challenging Europe-wide plan which considers water not just in terms of individual rivers, lakes or estuaries, but acknowledges its inextricable relationship with ecosystems as a whole. A key consideration in implementing the Directive is whether measures will incur disproportionate cost and the Directive offers welcome flexibility on this point. The Directive introduces a 6 yearly cycle of river basin planning, with an RBMP for each river basin district to be produced in 2009, 2015, 2021 and so on. Amongst other things, the plans must list the environmental objectives for that district, justify how and where alternative objectives have been used, and summarise the programme of measures which will be taken to achieve the objectives.
The guidance focuses on the nine river basin districts in England and Wales, and one of the two cross-border river basin districts in England and Scotland, each of which is required to have a River Basin Management Plan (RBMP).
Minister for Water Phil Woolas said:
"We are reaching a key stage in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and this guidance will assist the Environment Agency in developing draft River Basin Management Plans by the end of the year.
"The development of those plans, based on the principles set out in the first volume of guidance as well as what is contained within this consultation, will inform the decisions on the measures required in each river basin district to help us achieve the objectives of the WFD."
An updated Impact Assessment for the Directive has been published alongside the consultation. Implementation of the WFD will contribute to improving water quality standards in England, a commitment outlined by the Government in the recently published strategy 'Future Water'.
The Environment Agency will undertake a separate consultation on draft RBMPs from 22 December 2008 for 6 months.
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