Tbilisi Reservoir 31 May 2009

Sunday Vlado and agreed to cycle North of Tbilisi where there is a large reservoir made to provide the town with drinking water (commonly known as the Tbilisi Sea) fed by irrigation canals.

The weather was clear (beautiful views over the town and with the Caucasus in the background; we could also see some snow covered mountains to the south which we considered to be Mount Ararat), but very windy and it was tough to cycle around the lake against the wind.

Baku, 24 – 27 May 2009

This was my first trip to Azerbaijan. We were flying from Tbilisi to Baku, a short trip lasting 80 minutes. The purpose of the trip was to meet with the Azeri members of our team and discus their work.

The basis of Baku's economy is petroleum. The existence of petroleum has been known since the 8th century. By the 15th century oil for lamps was obtained from surface wells. Commercial exploitation began in 1872, and by the beginning of the 20th century the Baku oil field was the largest in the world and the economy booming.

Today's Baku is really four cities rolled into one: the old town, the first oil boomtown, the Soviet-built town, and the new town developments altogether with a population of 2 million people.

The centre of Baku is the old town, which is also a fortress. The walled city of Baku became in December 2000 the first location in Azerbaijan classified as world cultural site by UNESCO. This section is picturesque, with its maze of narrow alleys and ancient buildings. The 11th-century Maiden's Tower is impressive.

Cycling in and around Tbilisi, Saturday 23rd of May 2009

This time I managed to bring my Brompton folding bike with me to Tbilisi from Denmark, and my Bulgarian colleague Vlado and I agreed to take a trip on our bikes Saturday.

The Turtle Lake just south of Tbilisi is a very popular site for recreation and we agreed to go there. On the way we visited the Tbilisi open land ethnographical museum, with many interesting houses from Georgia past.

From Turtle Lake we continued over the mountain ridge with magnificent views over Tbilisi down through some pine woods and over fields until we found the way back to Tbilisi.

Then it went fast down hill until we arrived to Tbilisi old town. On our way to the Vake District though the main street we passed the ongoing demonstrations against the president. A lot of tent or cells were situated on the main road opposite the parliament. No much activity was going on, and the few people around the cells were more active in socializing with each other than agitating against Saakasjvili.

Bucharest, Vienna og Warszawa, may 2009

As a part of an extension of the EIB-JASPERS project I was working on in Luxembourg before the Kura project, I was on some short missions to Bucharest, Vienna og Warszawa to train the JASPERS task managers in EIA. The missions are a part of an 25 days extension of the JASPERS contract.

On Sunday I am going back to Tbilisi, where I will be until the beginning of August, with some trips to Azerbaijan and Armenia. I am also planning som hiking in the Caucasus in the end of July.

Picture 1: Bucharest
Picture 2: Vienna
Picture 3-5: Warsaw

Frederiksborg castle, 1 May 2009

I was asked to participate at a visit to Frederiksborg castle in connexion with a study tour in Denmark for a project in Albania: Implementation of the National Plan for Approximation of Environmental Legislation – an offer I could not refuse.

Kura River study tour in Denmark, April 19 – April 26, 2009

As a part of the Kura River project we organised a study tour to Denmark for high ranking officials and decision makers from the beneficiary institutions in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, 4 - 5 persons from each country.

The wanted to hear some about Danish experience in
1) Measures implemented to minimise the human impact on rivers, lakes and ground waters;
2) Biological monitoring, and the practical role of monitoring in decision-making process;
3) Provision of water use permits and compliance assurance with permit conditions;
4) How to manage the data collected about water and transform them into information;
5) Financial mechanisms for water resources management.

It was quit a time consuming puzzle to organise a program that addressed all these wishes, find institutions and persons ready to tell something and fit it into a one week program, but in the end we succeeded to meet most of their wishes.

The study tour included a visit to Roskilde and the Vikinge ships museum plus a vist at DanSteel in Frederiksvaerk.

Although the way Denmark handle the challenges in the water sector is very different from what they have been able to achieve in the same sector during the present transition period from the communist times, it was my impression that they were satisfied with the Study Tour, and got some inspiration for their work with the same issues in their home countries.