Consortium
Danube provides drinking water for millions of people every day. The protection of this water resource is extremely important, a national strategic interest, requiring the cooperation of different professional fields.
Members of the consortium implementing the project: HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research (consortium leader), Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest Waterworks Ltd., Miskolc University, National Public Health Centre.
The main task of the Centre for Ecological Research is scientific research, focusing on the composition, structure, dynamics and processes of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, biodiversity and water quality protection. Since 2016, the Centre is the institutional coordinator of the National Water Programme of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, thus it plays a pivotal role in integrating and catalysing water research in the future. The current project is coordinated by the Institute of Aquatic Ecology, having sixth decades of experience in the research of the Danube, its tributaries, ecosystems and their environment and the interactions between them.
The Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) is rooted in the 18th century through its predecessors. Following several structural reorganisations and renaming it operates under its current name and structure since January 1st, 2000. The University of Technogy has 8 faculties covering almost the full scope of technology. The Faculty of Civil Engineering participates in graduate training since the foundation of the University (1871). Two of the nine departments, the Department of Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering and the Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering participates in projects. The objective of the Faculty is to provide high level training on BSc and MSc and on specialised post-graduate level. The faculty supports Hungarian and foreign students in preparing for student research competition and PhD students in attaining their degree.
Budapest Waterworks – looking back to almost one and a half centuries of history – is one of the most prestigious water suppliers of Central-Eastern Europe, regarding both its size and its high level technological development. Water supply responsibilities are assisted by cutting edge technologies. The water distribution system of the Budapest Waterworks extends to 5,300 km throughout the city and its agglomeration. The drinking water supply and distribution system is now fully automated. The drinking water supply of Budapest relies solely on the 760 horizontal, tube and ranney type bank filtration wells operated by the Company. The wells enable the production of close to 1 million cubic meters of drinking water. The accredited laboratory of the Company analyses more than 10,000 samples for organic and inorganic chemical, microbiological, microscopic biological, and ecotoxicological parameters.
The Institute of Environmental Management of the Miskolc University is the most reknown scientific hub of the national hydrogeological research and graduate training. The Excellence Centre of Natural Resource Management brings together interdisciplinary competences which are indispensable in carrying out complex water management projects. The international recognition of the Institute of Environmental Management and the Excellence Centre is reflected by the five currently running Horizon2020 projects, acting as a coordinator in two. Three of the projects are directly connected to groundwater resource research. The most important national projects are the recently closed KÚTFŐ and the on-going INNOVÍZ R+D excellence programme, which greatly contribute to the development of research competences and retaining young researchers.
The National Public Health Centre is a government organisation, a background institution of the Ministry of Human Capacities, partially independent legal entity. Since its foundation in 1927, it is the primary entity responsible for public health in Hungary. The tasks of the Public Health Laboratory Department of the Institute cover the full scope of environmental health from sampling, on-site and laboratory analysis of environmental matrices to the health risk assessment of the detected constituents and pollutants. The laboratories are accredited for the analysis of drinking and surface water for a wide range of chemical, microbiological, ecotoxicological and radiology parameters. Health risk assessment of drinking water pollutants is a priority task of the National Public Health Centre, other research on this topic is currently on-going.