Odra River Basin Flood Protection Project: Implementation of a Flood Risk Management Plan

International audienceOver the last 30 years large floods have occurred in Central Europe, causing multi-billion euros of losses. There were floods on the rivers Rhine (1991,1993), Odra (1997, 1998), Vistula (2001, 2010), Tisa (2001), and Elbe(2002) to name a few. In response to the floods in the Odra River basin, the states located within the catchment: the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany agreed upon a common strategy and action plan in order to enhance flood safety, undertaking to implement this plan under their respective national action plans. In 2001, Poland’s government and Parliament established a multi-objective strategy for the Odra catchment (Programme for the Odra River – 2006), whose main priority was flood protection. The implementation of the programme was scheduled for years 2002-2016 and the main implementation tool was the project established with support of the World Bank and the Council of Europe Development Bank, called the Odra River Basin Flood Protection Project with financing of 800 million euros. The Project was completed in 2020 because of certain delays in implementation. The paper will describe the content and implementation of the project that included active and passive protection measures. An International Panel of Experts (IPE) provided support for the implementation of the project by issuing reports and recommendations concerning all major technical problems that occurred during the design and construction of the polders. The paper will conclude with lessons learnt and comments on further development concerning the new Odra-Vistula Flood Management Project