According to theUNECE Water Convention (1992), transboundary waters means any surface or ground waters which mark, cross or are located on boundaries between two or more States; wherever transboundary waters flow directly into the sea, these transboundary waters end at a straight line across their respective mouths between points on the low-water line of their banks.

The Dniester River is a transboundary river 1380 km long, which starts in the Ukrainian Carpathians, flows through Moldova and reaches Ukraine again near the Black Sea. The upper and lower reaches of the Dniester flow within Ukraine, totalling a length of 629 km. Another 225 km of the river is shared by Ukraine and Moldova, while 475 km are within the borders of Moldova. Only a very small upper part of the Strviazh River (a tributary of the Dniester) lies within the territory of Poland.

The total population of the Dniester River basin in Ukraine and Moldova is about 8 million people, with over 5 million in Ukraine and 2.7 million in Moldova. The Dniester is currently facing environmental problems due to pollution and the current water flow regime. The environmental degradation of the Dniester is made worse by the frozen Transdniestrian conflict, which, inter alia, negatively impacts the use of existing infrastructure for wastewater treatment.

During Soviet times, the water basin was managed as one system, but since 1991 Moldova and Ukraine have been managing their respective parts of the river separately. A bilateral “Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Moldova and the Government of Ukraine on the Joint Use and Protection of the Cross-Border Waters” was signed in 1994 (hereinafter “the 1994 Agreement”) and a Meeting of Plenipotentiaries was instituted as a cooperative mechanism.

This site is devoted to cooperation between Moldova and Ukraine to improve sustainable management of the Dniester River basin. It was developed in the frame of the UNECE / OSCE / UNEP project Action Programme to improve transboundary cooperation and sustainable management of the Dniester River basin (Dniester III) within the Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC) and was transferred to the Plenipotentiaries of the Republic of  Moldova and Ukraine (the 1994 Agreement) for administration according to the Regulation on Moldovan-Ukrainian cooperation in the management of the joint Dniester River basin website in Desember 2008