U.S. Study tour

During period of August 21-27 2007, a delegation of four representatives of the ICPDR and a representative of the Sava Commission participated in a study visit to the USACE institutions (such as the Waterways Experiment Station of the Engineering Research and Development Center in Vicksburg (Mississippi), and the Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as well as the Mississippi River Commission-MRC) upon the invitation of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).The major purpose of the visit was to familiarize the host institutions with the ICPDR and the Sava Commission and to discuss the possible future cooperation. Main activities of the delegation during the study tour were attendance of the session of the MRC (in a form of a public hearing), participation in the meetings where the ICPDR and the Sava Commission presented their activities to the hosts, participation in a number of presentations of the USACE expertise in fields of navigation, floods management and protection of water quality and aquatic ecosystem.

Two forms of cooperation of the USACE and the ISRBC have been identified:
  • Technical support of the USACE to the Sava Commission in realization of the “Flood Risk Assessment Study for the Sava River Basin” (which is a priority project of the Sava Commission), if the financial support for the study would be provided by the USAID.
  • Joint organization of a workshop on “Environmentally friendly sustainable development of navigation and management of inland waterways infrastructure” in one of the Sava river basin countries in first half of year 2008. The target group for the workshop would be experts from the relevant ministries (responsible for both inland waterway transport and infrastructure, and the environmental protection) and agencies for development of inland navigation and main objective of the workshop would be promotion of best practices of the USACE in the Sava countries.