‘Cross-border NL-NRW workshop on water management’:

Last year, FiW successfully organised and chaired the cross-border ‘Transboundary Waters Workshop’ in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Now, on 2 October, the second annual Border Waters Workshop was held in Düsseldorf under the auspices of the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MUNV). Jana Vredenburg, a research assistant at the FiW, was once again entrusted with the overall moderation of the one-day event. The approximately 60 international water management experts from the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia focused in particular on the structure and organisation of water management in both countries and discussed ways of improving cross-border cooperation through a revised governance structure.

The event began with a panel discussion between State Secretary Viktor Haase and Saskia Borgers, the dike reeve of the Limburg Water Board. During the discussion, Ms Borgers and Mr Haase praised the cooperation that has developed between the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia and emphasised the shared values of trust, networking and responsibility, as well as the importance of mutual curiosity and openness. This was followed by a series of presentations designed to deepen mutual understanding of water management structures. Eric Kuindersma (political adviser for external relations at the Rivierenland Water Board) outlined the organisation of water management and the specific role of the water boards as water authorities in the Netherlands. To explain the German organisational structure, Jennifer Schäfer-Sack (Managing Director of the Association of Water Management Associations in North Rhine-Westphalia, agw) and Gesa Amstutz (Head of the Water Management, Operations & Technology Division at the Left Lower Rhine Drainage Cooperative, LINEG) presented the structure of the water associations in North Rhine-Westphalia, using LINEG as an example.

Finally, an interactive workshop session was held to discuss ways of revising and consolidating the existing cross-border bodies. The question of improving the organisational structure of cross-border bodies and their governance arose, amongst other things, in the wake of the first transboundary waters workshop held in Arnhem in July 2025: after a wealth of nearly 200 potential measures to improve regional cross-border cooperation in water management had been drawn up in Arnhem, it quickly became clear to the relevant decision-makers in both countries that, in particular, the measures aimed at improving the governance of bodies held great potential for sustainable improvements in cooperation.

As a first step, a feasibility study was commissioned to examine and weigh up the possibilities for improvements in detail. This study is expected to have a positive impact in several respects: it is regarded as a further concrete building block in the intensification of cross-border cooperation, as the consultancy firm Berenschot (on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water) is collaborating on the Dutch side, whilst the FiW (on behalf of the Province of Overijssel and the MUNV) is doing so on the German side. Furthermore, relevant water management experts are to be interviewed as part of the study, so that the findings, thanks to broad participation, will have a high degree of viability for subsequent implementation. In this regard, the interactive workshop session on 2 October has already made a significant contribution to the initial assessment of the feasibility study. The feasibility study is therefore already a concrete step towards improved cross-border cooperation and is due to present its findings as early as the beginning of 2027.

In his closing remarks to the participants, Matthias Börger, Head of Department IV – Water Management and Soil Protection at the MUNV, thanked them for the friendly and constructive exchange in a warm atmosphere. 
The FiW would like to express its gratitude for the continued trust placed in it and looks forward to further fruitful cross-border cooperation!

Further information: www.umwelt.nrw.de/grenzwasser-workshop-nrw-niederlande-zusammenarbeit-im-zeichen-der-wasserfamilie