For example, since 2007, more than 2.6 million people across nine different Member States have been provided with an improved supply of drinking water thanks to EU financial support; an additional 5.7 million people, living in 14 different Member States, were connected to improved wastewater treatment.

36. Welcomes the adoption of the national strategy for sustainable development, but calls for more effort to implement legislation in the field of the environment and to provide adequate funds to this end; in particular, draws attention to the challenges in the areas of water quality, waste management and nature protection; calls for closer cooperation on transboundary environmental issues, based on the EU standards; in this regard, reiterates its call for effective monitoring of the quality and level of the water in the border lakes Ohrid, Prespa and Dojran, as well as in the river Vardar; welcomes the initiative of the trilateral P ...[+++]respa Lake Euro-region involving the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Albania; calls on the government to extend the successful experience of the Ohrid waste water collector system to the other lakes in the region; furthermore, welcomes the progress achieved in the construction of a waste-water treatment plant in Gevgelia;

36. Welcomes the adoption of the national strategy for sustainable development, but calls for more effort to implement legislation in the field of the environment and to provide adequate funds to this end; in particular, draws attention to the challenges in the areas of water quality, waste management and nature protection; calls for closer cooperation on transboundary environmental issues, based on the EU standards; in this regard, reiterates its call for effective monitoring of the quality and level of the water in the border lakes Ohrid, Prespa and Dojran, as well as in the river Vardar; welcomes the initiative of the trilateral P ...[+++]respa Lake Euro-region involving the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Albania; calls on the government to extend the successful experience of the Ohrid waste water collector system to the other lakes in the region; furthermore, welcomes the progress achieved in the construction of a waste-water treatment plant in Gevgelia;

35. Welcomes the adoption of the national strategy for sustainable development, but calls for more effort to implement legislation in the field of the environment and to provide adequate funds to this end; in particular, draws attention to the challenges in the areas of water quality, waste management and nature protection; calls for closer cooperation on transboundary environmental issues, based on the EU standards; in this regard, reiterates its call for effective monitoring of the quality and level of the water in the border lakes Ohrid, Prespa and Dojran, as well as in the river Vardar; welcomes the initiative of the trilateral P ...[+++]respa Lake Euro-region involving the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Albania; calls on the government to extend the successful experience of the Ohrid waste water collector system to the other lakes in the region; furthermore, welcomes the progress achieved in the construction of a waste-water treatment plant in Gevgelia;

C. whereas the building of new wastewater treatment centres aimed at removing serious pollutants is a major achievement; whereas, if fresh water resources are not allocated to the Lower Jordan River to coincide with the operation of these centres, long stretches of the River will likely run dry by the end of 2011,

As demonstrated by the very important opening of the St Petersburg south-west waste water treatment plant last year, with its tangible beneficial effects in water quality in the Gulf of Finland, cooperation and cofinancing with the Russian Federation is possible and it pays dividends both to their citizens and to ours.