Serbia: Reduction of Enterprise Nutrient Discharges Project (RENDR) (under the WB-GEF Investment Fund for Nutrient Reduction in the Black Sea/Danube Basin)

The project would reduce nutrient pollution from hotspot enterprises on the Danube River and its tributaries through investment in cleaner production and better waste management technologies as well as institutional and monitoring& enforcement development. As such, it would address some of the main root causes of serious pollution of a threatened transboundary waterbody, the Black Sea by way of the Danube River. Being proposed for implementation under the Strategic Partnership on the Danube and Black Sea Basin, the project would be in conformity with GEF OP No. 8 Waterbody-based Operational Program and the GEF Operational Strategy. The project would also serve as model for replication in other parts of the basin. The global environment objective of the Reduction of Enterprise Nutrient Discharges Project would be to reduce nutrient pollution from hotspot enterprises. This would also help SAM meet its international commitments under the Danube River Convention. The development objective would be to reduce the negative public health, economic and amenity impact associated with water and soil pollution from enterprise pollutant discharges. The project would also provide a working model for the implementation of the ongoing regulatory and institutional reforms in the republic, in particular the new Law on System of Environmental Protection, the new Law on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control and the new Law on Environmental Impact Assessment. It would also strengthen the regulatory capacity to specifically deal with nutrient pollution of water bodies in harmony with relevant European Union Directives.