17 August, Vitebsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. The water quality in the Dnieper and Western Dvina river basins has not changed, and there is a trend towards stabilization of surface water quality. This was the conclusion reached by Belarusian and Russian experts of the working groups for these river basins at a regular joint meeting held in Bryansk, Russian Federation, the Vitebsk Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection informed a BELTA correspondent. Belarusian and Russian environmentalists informed each other about the monitoring of water quality in transboundary sections of water bodies, joint water sampling at transboundary water body cross-sections, and interlaboratory comparative analyses. Unified forms for presenting the results of the inventory of transboundary lakes and transboundary watercourses in the Dnieper and Western Dvina river basins, and the sources of their pollution, have been completed. Experts also prepared proposals for improving the ecological condition of transboundary water bodies in the Dnieper and Western Dvina river basins, and proposals for the directions of scientific research and applied scientific work to improve the water management situation in the basins of transboundary water bodies in the Dnieper and Western Dvina river basins. The activities of the working groups are carried out in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus on cooperation in the field of protection and rational use of transboundary water bodies and in accordance with the decisions adopted at the sixth meeting of the joint Russian-Belarusian Commission.-0-

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