The EEA has met with Belstat, to share the first outputs of the water flow accounts in the Republic of Belarus. Belstat presented the water use and supply tables as products of the flow accounts, and the EEA shared the use of water accounts results in knowledge-based policymaking at the European level.

As part of its strategy to 2022, Belarus plans to develop various components of the environmental accounts, e.g. energy, forests and environmental protection. Developing water flow accounts is in the national plan for reporting to SDG 6.4. Belarus will update the flow accounts annually and will also develop the asset accounts component in 2020. In addition, Belstat is planning to visualise key outputs of the flow accounts on its website and make available the underlying data.

During a fruitful discussion at the meeting participants asked various questions on the methodological implementation of the European water accounts and the data disaggregation methodology.

The representative from Belstat, Ms Irina Kangro, First Deputy Chairperson, expressed appreciation for the ENI SEIS II East project’s support of the development of the water flow accounts for Belarus.

Background information: Belarus selected the development of water flow accounts as a pilot activity of the ENI SEIS II East project. Under this activity, Belstat developed annual water flow accounts with the support of the EEA expert.