Plan execution

• institutional arrangements; installation of the administrative structure which ensures horizontal and vertical integration of management
• legal arrangements; laws, conventions, decrees and standards to make management possible, and
• financial arrangements; allocate money to pay the expenditures during the process

Operation

ECO-KASTELA BAY PROJECT

The Eco Kastela Bay project requested a number of arrangements to be made for adequate implementation of related projects. These arrangements are of institutional, financial, legislative character:

Institutional arrangements
An analysis of the institutional organisation suggested that the implementation of this project required the new institutional arrangement. It was decided to establish the new institution, a special centre for the implementation of the Integrated Ecological Project, Agency Eco-Kastela Bay. The proposed programme and projects were verified at all levels, the rights and liabilities of all involved parties were agreed upon, and the programme implementation was launched in 1989.

Financial arrangements
The implementation of the Integrated Ecological Project of Infrastructure Construction required significant funding. After analysis of the needs assessment it was concluded that local financial resources were far from being enough, and that a rather big loan was indispensable in order to implement these big construction works. Several ways of financing were proposed, and they were as follows: local funds; local urban services; the state, donations and bank loans; and primarily the World Bank, EBRD and IBRD loans. The analysis was done to find out the ways of paying off the loans and securing the funds for the operation and maintenance of the built systems. As a result of the analysis some economic instruments were adapted. Those primarily referred to the price of services for water, sewerage, and waste, and the level of the urban rent. Considerable funds were also donated by the World Bank through the METAP – Kastela Bay.

The political problems caused postponement of the implementation of the Integrated Ecological Project, but in 1996, first results were obtained, in a form of 2 loans from the World Bank and from the EBRD, for implementation of the first stage of the project. Construction started in 1999.

Today, the project "ECO-KASTELA BAY" provides proposals for solving the waste water issue, as well as enabling fresh water supply. Besides the improvement of freshwater supply, it will enable further economic activity, as well as increase the water consumption, ensuring the necessary funds for the pay back of international loans. Namely, the pay back money is generated from the 25% higher price of tap water. Total value of the project is assessed to be about €150 millions, and the end of the implementation stage is scheduled for the end of 2003.

Legislative arrangements
No laws, national or regional, have been created or adapted specially for this project. Still, having in mind that the project formulation was prepared in the period of big changes in Croatia, the indirect influence of the “Eco –Kastela Bay” project on legislation in Croatia is certain. Croatia was recognised as an independent state in 1991, and since then it had to formulate the new laws in all fields and all sectors. The same situation was in environmental protection sector. During formulation of the project, and now in its implementation stage, it was harmonised with the new Croatian legislation, and with the European Union laws, with which Croatia has to harmonise laws at present

Conflict management

Conflicts that arise may be of a "vertical" nature, i.e., occurring between users at different levels, or of "horizontal" nature, i.e., users at the same level in different sectors. An example of the first is a conflict between a national authority, who wants to establish a nature conservation area in the context of a national nature policy, and a local community, who wants to invest in industrial development to raise the income of the local people. An example of the second is a conflict between people mining sand from the beach to build new houses somewhere up-country, and the people living near the coastline, who object the sand mining because their houses are threatened by the coastal erosion as a result.

To address larger conflicts, the ICZM programs should establish an arbitration system. Such a system must provide a clear methodology to handle conflicts and come to a solution. One can distinguish between administrative and legal procedures. Administrative procedures are based on the willingness to co-operate by all parties. For every conflict, a procedure can be tailored to suit its specific needs. For example, an ad hoc task force can be established (a commission, a scientific body) to search for a solution for a particular problem.  A policy dialogue could be established to bring the conflicting parties together and have them discuss under the leadership of an "independent" person (a mediator). An arbitration procedure can be started where it is impossible to find a solution through negotiations. If all fails, legal procedures must be used to enforce a solution. Such procedures are a time and money consuming and should therefore be avoided.

Laying down of the tubes in the tunnel.

Conflict management
Since the very beginning of the project formulation and especially implementation, numerous conflicts arose. The biggest part of this conflicts can be described as so called “NIMBY” (not in my back yard) effect. No settlement wanted the outlet or the wastewater treatment plan, causing that more than 20 technical solutions for this issue were proposed. This naturally caused the postponements and delays in the implementation stage. It must be said that this is a serious problem for a project of this size, since any delay in implementation will have financial repercussions. Conflict management was an extremely important part of this project, and one of the lesson learned is that possible conflicts should be carefully assessed and planned from the beginning of the project preparation.