Danube Day (DD) celebrations in Ukrainian part of Danube delta were conducted at the initiative of regional activists of “MAMA-86-Izmail initiative group” and supported by “MAMA-86”.

It has become a tradition to start DD celebration in Ukrainian Lower Danube by actions of cleaning river banks and wetlands. Three environmental actions “Clean bank — clean Danube” took place from 4 to 28 June. More than 80 activists and volunteers cleaned Danube banks in city Izmail. Izmail fortress neighborhoods, new and old beaches, part of the nearby forest were cleaned from rubbish. Company “Zhylservis” helped activists to take the rubbish away to the designated places.

Youth of the region took active part in all Danube Day activities.

From 1 to 26 June youth actions were conducted:

• Competition of projects “Youth for clean Danube”, on which 12 projects were presented. 5 proposals that were received from organizations “Danube ecological club”, “Union of energetic youth”, “Prydunaiskyi center of civil initiative”, “Nature and people” and from the Station of young naturalists were winners and were supported for implementation by Public Council of Izmail city council.  
• An interactive seminar “Virtual tour of Danube delta”, Eco quiz for small children and annual meeting of members of School for young naturalists were held on 3 and 7 June in Izmail city library. 40 young environmentalists participated in the events.
• 45 young naturalists took part in the competition for best poster and social adverts on the theme of Danube protection. All participants received gifts — cotton bags from the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River.
• 38 pupils aged 9–14 years participated in two art master classes on working with the local natural materials. Children learned both theory and practice of producing creative works from various materials, including clay. For students of Izmail boarding school master classes were conducted by professional artists. All participants of master classes were well satisfied and decided to create a permanent club of art sculptures and souvenirs at the Izmail boarding school.
• As part of the regional contest “Danube Art Master 2011” three creative arts competitions “I love Danube” were conducted. The winners of regional competition were: 1st place — Alexey Ilyin (work “Danube Landscape”, 2nd place — Alexander Kalyuzhny (work “Danube, we are with you one blood”, 3rd place — Gleb Hevrasyev (work “Danube Odyssey”) and Valery Eshanu (work “The journey on the Danube”). It is planned that entries will be shown at the exhibition, which will be converted into Children’s art museum in the future.

On 25 June issues of provision of region’s population with safe drinking water were discussed at the round table “The right to safe water: the successful experience of local initiatives”.

18 representatives of NGOs participated in the round table and learned about the experience of Ukrainian NGOs on the implementation of effective pilot projects, including NGO “MAMA-86”’s pilots on ecological sanitation and constructed wetlands building. Participants discussed the perspectives of ecosan projects implementation in the Danube region with the support of local authorities.

On 26 June 35 representatives of youth organizations, local authorities, educational institutions, specialized agencies and institutions, regional initiative groups discussed the priorities actions of governments and stakeholders on environmental protection and sustainable development of the Danube region at the Youth Danube ECO-Forum. The results of work of Working Group on National Action Plan, the prospects for regional development, transport infrastructure, environment and tourism were discussed during the Forum session “Prospects of Ukrainian action plan of Danube EU strategy”. Especially hot debates took place on the Forum section “Alternative ways of integrated sustainable development of the Prydunayskyi region”. Projects of regional initiative groups were presented during Forum’s section “Youth ecological initiatives”. It is planned that the best projects will be supported by the Public Council and implemented in 2011.

Danube Day celebrations were completed in city Reni by a festival “Danube Wreath”. 50 soloists of 8-folk vocal and dance groups from the Lower Danube region took part in the concert program and created a real atmosphere of celebration and festivities. Hundreds of residents of Reni joined the Danube Day celebration.

More than 600 residents of the Lower Danube region, cities Izmail and Reni actively participated in various activities of Danube Day 2011. 13 regional environmental organizations amicably worked during preparations and conducting of DD 2011 actions. More than 10 000 people learned about Danube Day and Danube river problems through media and DD2011 actions.