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Evidence on plastic pollution has already been gathered in both the freshwater systems and the marine environment (including the Danube and the Black Sea) over the last decades. Scientific investigations identified strong linkages between marine pollution, terrestrial areas and land-based activities. Poor waste management, everyday littering, plastic industry facilities, consuming of products of textile and cosmetic industries in households and tire abrasion pollute rivers that further discharge plastic litter into the receiving seas. While priority should be given to reducing plastic pollution at source, river clean-up actions are also highly important to eliminate plastic litter accumulation hot-spots.

Danube Art Master is the Danube region’s flagship international environmental arts competition for children and young people from all schools, NGOs, clubs, day care centres or associations for children in the Danube Basin. It often runs closely alongside Danube Day celebrations,

The ICPDR outreach activities activate the participation of youth: this is high and most important on our agenda! On this topic, many activities have already been in place for several years, such as Danube Day, Danube Box and Danube Art Master.

The Pollution Management Expert Group (PM EG) deals with pollution-related pressures, identifies the drivers behind them, and recommends measures to address pollution sources.

Any child in the Danube Basin is able to name the closest river. But it might have difficulties to say where this river flows to. And it might be impossible for it to name the ten countries, the Danube flows through.
The Danube Box - an education toolkit available in several languages and country versions - assist teachers in bringing the Danube closer to the minds of future generations.

“29 June” is the international Danube Day. It was first celebrated by the ICPDR in 2004 to highlight the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Danube River Protection Convention. Through the joint effort of different organizations, the celebration of Danube Day throughout the Danube River Basin became an annual event, paying tribute to the Danube and the rivers that flow into it.

daNUbs was a mulitnational EU research project carried out under the leadership of the Technical University of Vienna. The results from this project include estimates of nutrient inputs into the river network (MONERIS), as well as an assessment of the loads of nitrogen, phosphorus and silica transported via the river network. These results indicate that the nutrient status in the Black Sea has significantly improved since the 1980s.

Organic pollution has been on the rise in the Danube over the last century, as human activities have resulted in increasing loads of wastewater rich in organic matter. The most serious organic pollution problems occur in tributaries that regularly receive untreated or inadequately treated wastewater from industrial plants and municipalities. Thanks to the significant improvement of wastewater infrastructure and services in the Danube countries, the basin-wide organic emissions reduced by 60% since the mid 2000s.

Hazardous substances can remain in the environment for a very long time, and harm ecosystems and human health. Although monitoring indicates that the loads of some substances have been reduced in recent years, many problems still persist. The increasing number of these man-made substances present in the environment is a matter of concern, and calls for the application of the precautionary principle.

The nutrient levels, notably phosphorus and nitrogen, found in the Danube River and its major tributaries hold significant international importance. This is because they directly contribute to the phenomenon of eutrophication in both the river itself and the Black Sea. Historical trend analysis of nutrient river loads over the past decades shows a significant reduction in the transported nutrient fluxes to the Black Sea. Overall nutrient emissions declined by 30% (nitrogen) and 50% (phosphorus) in the last 15 years. However, the current long-term fluxes are still considerably higher than those of the early 1960ies which represent river loads under low pressures, indicating a further load reduction potential that might be exploited for the benefit of the Black Sea. Nevertheless, in the last 5-10 years the measured loads are rather low and close to the Black Sea targets indicating significant water quality improvement.