The Municipal environmental campaign U.A.N. has its seat in Hanover, the state capital of Lower Saxony in the north of Germany. The U.A.N. literally exists under the umbrella of the association of towns and municipalities in Lower Saxony, not only spacially, but also organisationally. The U.A.N. is an independent registered association, but is closely linked by management and council with the association of towns and municipalities.

The association was founded in 1985 assigned with supporting towns and municipalities with solving their environmental tasks. The U.A.N.’s role is to advise municipalities in particular, to maintain contact with relevant institutions, to maintain the exchange of experience under the municipalities and to initiate, to prepare and to organise further education for local political representatives and administrative members.

Due to the relationship to the association of towns and municipalities in Lower Saxony the target group of the U.A.N. is the municipalities, but not only those in Lower Saxony, the U.A.N. also supports members from other federal sates in Germany, which fund the U.A.N.

Because the U.A.N. is an association, the membership-fees are a part of the financial means of the U.A.N. In addition proceeds come from the sales of publications, execution of seminars and a third means is from projects. The team of the U.A.N. consists of a general manager, an office manager and accountant in one person, one secretary and four engineers, as well as a honorary colleague.

For some years, with regard to content, the U.A.N.’s main focus has been on water. From 2000 to the end of 2004 there was an extensive project, financed from funds imposed on wastewater by the Environmental Ministry of Lower Saxony, called the wastewater information forum. The task of the information forum was to encourage the exchange of experience between the municipalities in the field of waste water. The information forum wanted to take up and work through problem areas, experience value and specialised knowledge to different aspects of municipal water management, in particular related to small sewage treatment plants. For this, seminars were held, workshops and information meetings organized and experts' meetings were initiated and evaluated as well as the results were made accessible to the public through scripts and brochures.

Since the topic of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) became more prevalent, the content emphasis of the U.A.N. shifted. Since the beginning of the year 2005 the U.A.N. has been working on a new project called wib (water frame directive information forum), this project is also financed by funding from the levy on wastewater imposed by the Environmental Ministry of Lower Saxony.

The intention of wib is to support the municipalities in the process, now beginning, of planning and implementation of the WFD and to raise the interests of municipalities and make sure these are considered. The municipalities, as relevant stakeholders, should be actively involved in the implementation process. The development process in the municipalities should be brought forward and during the implementation of the WFD the ecological, economical and social concerns at regional level should be considered. The wib establishes itself as a point of contact, information pool and communication platform for municipalities regarding questions on the WFD. There-fore an important component will be to inform the municipalities. In addition seminars, workshops and experience exchange are offered to ranges of topics concerning the municipalities.

The water framework directive information forum also wants to support the municipalities with participation in regional co-operation. The wib wants to find answers to frequently asked questions and wants to develop practise-orientated solutions together with the municipalities. Good examples from practical experience as well as lots of information on the WFD will be provided on the website http://www.wrrl-kommunal.de/.

The project ENMaR forms the second work emphasis of the U.A.N. for the next three years. ENMaR stands in close exchange with the project wib. Furthermore there are the following activities: ABKOM (waste water cost minimisation on the basis of key data), international waste water partnerships, the pilot project "TSM" (technical safety management), DiWa (digital maintenance log for small sewage treatment plants), the news service "town hall & environment", as well as the "town hall market".

website www.uan.de