9 November, Vitebsk /BELTA correspondent/. The quality of water and the state of water ecosystems of transboundary water bodies in the Dnieper and Western Dvina river basins will be considered at the sixth meeting of the joint Belarusian-Russian commission on the protection and rational use of transboundary water bodies, the Vitebsk Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection informed the BELTA correspondent. The meeting will be held in Vitebsk from 9 to 10 November. It is planned to discuss proposals on the directions of scientific research and applied scientific work to improve the water management situation in the Dnieper and Western Dvina river basins, to improve their ecological condition, to supplement the list of transboundary watercourses and to make amendments and additions to the list of transboundary lakes of the Western Dvina river basin, as well as the issue of water quality and the state of water ecosystems of transboundary water bodies in the Dnieper and Western Dvina river basins, and to consider criteria for assessing the content of heavy metals in surface waters of transboundary water bodies. The joint Belarusian-Russian commission on the protection and rational use of transboundary water bodies operates in accordance with the agreement on cooperation in the field of protection and rational use of transboundary water bodies, signed in 2002 between the Government of Belarus and the Government of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. The previous meeting of the commission was held in 2010 in Moscow.-0-

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