The Green Danube Partnership
The Green Danube Partnership programme is a significant community water partnership that was developed in 2005 and involves conservation, awareness-raising and education. It is active in ten Hellenic countries: Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Slovenia and Czech Republic.
The programme attracts the participation of hundreds of thousands of people, while communicating important water conservation messages to millions of others.
The Danube river system supports 81 million people in 18 countries. All initiatives are carried out jointly with governmental, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), educational institutions and various local bodies.
The Green Danube Partnership is the result of an agreement signed on 1 June 2005. It involves the cooperation of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River Basin (ICPDR) , Coca-Cola Hellenic and The Coca-Cola Company.
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Danube Day
A key element of the Green Danube Partnership programme is public awareness raising on Danube Day conducted with the ICPDR and The Coca-Cola Company. Danube Day is the world’s largest river festival, held on 29 June every year.
The annual Danube Day celebrations focus on an increasingly broad series of activities, undertaken by the Green Danube Partnership, in an effort to preserve and protect the Danube River and the Danube River Basin.
For Danube Day 2011, activities conducted by The Green Danube Partnership have taken place in ten of the 18 countries supported by the river system. These are: Hungary, Austria, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Ukraine.
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The Danube Box
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In 2006, the Green Danube Partnership launched a major education initiative called the Danube Box It was first introduced in Austria, involving more than 100,000 children in classroom sessions and project work. It has been introduced in Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Germany and Bulgaria. |
It is designed to inform future generations about the importance of resource conservation and water management, and includes teaching aids, interactive materials, posters, maps and games.
Since the initial launch more than 10,000 kits, plus an additional 2,500 CD-ROMs of the instructional materials have been produced. Each of the national versions is available online at and in 2009 copies have been downloaded more than 9,000 times.
The Danube Box was one of two projects selected from over 600 submissions in Europe to showcase at the Stockholm World Water Week in 2007. It also won a silver award in the Best Sustainable Initiative category at the Global Bottled Water Congress in Mexico City.
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Business Friends of the Danube
In June 2008, the partnership launched an initiative called Business Friends of the Danube , to invite other companies to join through funding and active involvement.
The programme enables companies to contribute funding, as well as skills, to the efforts of the Green Danube Partnership to protect and preserve the Danube River and its environs. The programme was launched in June 2008 and will be promoted to businesses at various Danube Day functions.
Coca-Cola Hellenic contact
Ulrike Gehmacher
Group Public Affairs & Communications Manager
Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, S.A.
ulrike.gehmacher@cchellenic.com
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2011 Danube Days
Austria
The ‘Danube Challenge’ is the primary focus of Danube Day celebrations in Austria. This event enables children to learn about how to treat rivers and creeks sustainably. In order to qualify for the Danube Challenge, students took part in a “Hydration Check” in which they had to monitor their liquid intake for two weeks and learned about green or eco-friendly jobs. More than 22,000 students completed the “Hydration Check”.
Coca-Cola Hellenic in Austria worked closely with the Ministry of Environment to further publicise the event in staging an exhibition in September for “green” occupations based on the creative ideas presented at the “Hydration Check”.
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This event introduced a large number of people to a range of local foods, customs and cultural heritage of communities associated with the Danube River. Highlights of this year's celebrations were a roundtable conference to discuss the challenges the river faces and a gourmet contest.
In staging the two-day ‘Danube Festival’, Coca-Cola Hellenic in Romania collaborated with the Save Danube and Delta Association and the Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Development and Tourism, Ministry of Transportation and Waters Administration.
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With 92% of the country lying within the Danube Basin, Serbia is conducting an extensive range of programmes to heighten awareness about the need to protect its water resources from June to September 2011.
The high profile, far-reaching campaign began on 1 June with celebrations of Sava Day in three towns closely associated with the Sava River, and has shifted to commemorating the Danube Day in Belgrade and 26 towns throughout the country.
Events tailored to the interests and capabilities of different age-groups range from lectures and workshops to exhibitions, quizzes, contests, scientific experiments, clean-ups, re-stocking waterways, art shows, excursions, sports events, music festivals and concerts, film shows, and even presentations to those with special needs.
In September the International Conference on Ground Water will take place in Belgrade. In carrying out activities on such a large scale, Coca-Cola Hellenic Serbia, is working with a great many local government authorities, educational institutions, tourist organisations, citizens groups, environmental associations, sports bodies and NGOs.
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For Hungary, June was declared the “Danube month”, which covered a range of activities to educate, inform and entertain. Two websites featuring photos and videos about the Danube River were created with the assistance of young artists at the University for Applied Arts, along with a Facebook fan page to enable interactive communication.
The University of Applied Arts organised an Urban Space Workshop for 10 days, part of the EU Youth in Action Program. This involved the participation of 42 young professionals from seven Danube Countries creating artworks that demonstrate the relationship between the River and the people who live along its shores. Their creations were exhibited on a ship moored on the River, and can be seen at www.dunatema.eu.
The Young Citizens Danube Network Conference 2011 lasted three days and focused on a variety of issues of concern in Danube countries, including conservation and environmental protection.
An educational nature trail established along the riverside in Budapest featured 11 stops presenting artworks of history, the present and predictions of the future sustainable development of the Danube River.
Working together with NGOs, such as GWP Hungary, WWF Hungary, MOMELine and Valyo, Coca-Cola Hellenic in Hungary expects the activities to convey messages about the need to protect the Danube River to many hundreds of thousands of people throughout the month.
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To stimulate thinking about water preservation and sustainable use of water resources, an essay-writing competition was launched at the end of May, inviting teenagers and young adults to submit their ideas, opinions and recommendations.
Organised by Coca-Cola Hellenic in Bulgaria in conjunction with the Ministry of Environment and Waters, and Bulgaria’s leading news website Vesti.bg, the contest was supported by WWF Bulgaria, the Eco Community Foundation, and the New Bulgarian University.
Nearly 280 entries were submitted and were read on-line by more than 150,000 people. The winners were announced on Danube Day in a ceremony at the New Bulgarian University. The prizes were presented by Ms Nona Karadjova, the Minister of Environment and Waters, Nikos Kalaitzidsakis, General Manager of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bulgaria, and the Editor-in-Chief of Vesti.bg.
First prize was a 9-day adventure and educational cruise on the Danube River which included a visit to the central office of the International Commission for the Danube River (ICPDR) in Vienna.
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The Danube Day Celebrations began on 25 June with a special ceremony, attended by senior government officials from Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Hungary, for the installation of memorial plaques at the source of the Tisza River, one of the Danube’s main tributaries.
The festival was launched with a children’s performance entitled ‘Ecological Advertisements’, urging the protection of the environment, water saving and proper waste management and the ‘Battle for Water’ competition, with teams from different regions competing about their knowledge of the Tisza River. Those with cooking skills participated to the ‘Tisza Fish Soup’, while those with theatrical skills in the ‘Tisza Has Talent’, presenting songs, dances and other performances related to conservation of the environment.
In staging the Danube Day activities, Coca-Cola Hellenic in Ukraine worked in partnership with the International Commission for Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), the Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Zakarpattya Region Administration.
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In Croatia, June is the “Water month” which begins on the first day with the celebration of the Sava River Day, a major tributary of Danube, and part of the award winning programme “Our beautiful Sava”, and ends up with the Danube Day celebration in Osijek and Vukovar.
The key message communicated through the Sava events is that sustainable development through respecting water resources helps to boost the economy by increasing the potential for tourism. Presentations of handicrafts, trades and exhibitions were held in four cities along the river in addition to the workshops “Visible and Invisible Water World on the Sava River” with the assistance of Hrvatske vode.
The website for the river’s news presented also the newly published Nautical Tourism Atlas for the river, that was developed in cooperation with the Croatian Chamber of Economy and the International Sava River Basin Commission.
The valuable partners of Coca-Cola Hellenic in Croatia include the Ministry of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, the Agency for Inland Waterways and the Croatian Tourism Board in addition to many other groups and organisations.
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Slovenia has linked celebration of Sava Day and Danube Day with a contest for children called ‘You Are My River’.
The contest invited youngsters from all Slovenian schools to prepare a photo-story about the importance of rivers in the country, in order to educate and engage them on water and protection issues, by also spreading the water messages throughout Slovenia.
More than 400 youngsters participated and presented 50 different photo-stories. Five of these entries were the winners. The contest entries can be viewed on the project’s website (www.mojareka.si). The best submissions were exhibited to the public on Danube Day, organised by the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning.
Coca-Cola Hellenic in Slovenia gained valuable assistance from its main partner, the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning and many partners and supporters including the Slovenian Eco School network, the Ministry of Education and Sport, the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), the Institute for Water, and the International Sava River Basin Commission.
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In Slovakia, the major focus on the Danube Day celebrations is the education of people about the river’s importance and how its preservation affects their lives.
Thousands of adults and children were invited to take sightseeing tours along the River during which they learned about the fish, plants and birds which are dependent upon water and wetlands for their survival. In addition to the water tour, guests visited the Gabcikovo Waterworks, the country’s largest hydropower plant, and saw how it employs water to serve their daily power requirements while enabling safe navigation of the waterway.
Partners with Coca-Cola Hellenic Slovakia in conducting the Danube Day events included the Ministry of Environment, the Slovak Water Management Company, the Slovak Electricity Company and Broz, the Regional Association for Nature Conservation and Sustainable Development.
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During the Danube Day celebration, the winners of the Danube Art Master Competition are announced. This competition is an annual multi-national contest that invites entries from school students which highlight aspects of water protection and conservation.
From May until the end of the year, the successful Danube Box will be introduced to schools along the Morava River, a subsidiary of the Danube. This education tool was first introduced in Austria in 2006 and to other Danube countries since then.
In staging activities for Danube Day 2011 Coca-Cola Hellenic Czech Republic has worked closely with the Ministry of Environment and the non- governmental organisation, the Union for Morava River.
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