Delmenhorst/Großenkneten/Wehnen. The first face-to-face meeting took place in October last year in the Latvian capital of Riga, followed by a two-day return visit: water management experts from the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia met with their colleagues from the Oldenburgisch-Ostfriesischer Wasserverband (OOWV) and other stakeholders from science and practice to work at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst. They also visited the Bakenhus organic farm and the Wehnen trial site of the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture. The name of the project: BaltAqua.

"The challenges in Baltic water management are comparable to ours," explains project manager Franziska Meergans, advisor for international cooperation and water innovation networks at OOWV. "The exchange is therefore beneficial for everyone involved because there are different strengths that can be learnt from."

The dialogue between the partners is intended to pave the way for future-oriented water management. Heavy rain protection is just as much on the agenda as dealing with the pressure on groundwater resources. In a workshop atmosphere, the participants were able to engage in two days of intensive dialogue and thus deepen the network established in Riga.

"We have already noticed in recent months that the network has become established," says Franziska Meergans and reports an increase in requests for cooperation from the Baltic states. Together with Riga Technical University, for example, an EU project on the management of extreme weather events in urban areas has been applied for. The resulting network is therefore already blossoming.

BaltAqua is being carried out together with the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research at the University of Oldenburg. It is being funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation with around 80,000 euros.