{"id":633,"date":"2026-10-30T14:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T14:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/?p=633"},"modified":"2026-10-30T14:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T14:30:17","slug":"meratch-gems-project-stakeholder-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/meratch-gems-project-stakeholder-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Meratch at the GEMS Project Stakeholder Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 27 October 2026, the Water Research Institute in Bratislava hosted a meeting of the regional stakeholder working group of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.interregeurope.eu\/gems\">GEMS<\/a> project (<em>Groundwater management in nitrate vulnerable zones with agriculture activities<\/em>). The project focuses on protecting groundwater in areas at risk from agricultural nitrate pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Meratch presented<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two representatives spoke on behalf of Meratch:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Andrej Mosa\u0165<\/strong> presented results of the APVV project \u201cInternet of Water\u201d (<em>Adapt to a climate of extremes in real time<\/em>): real-time monitoring of climatic drought and water quality, including nitrates. The prototype in situ devices will enable online, 24\/7 monitoring of water composition in real time, with remote tracking of chemical and microbiological contamination of groundwater in wells, surface water in rivers and lakes, and soil parameters, plant nutrition and plant health in soil leachates. Applications include large-scale climate change monitoring, water governance, the UWWTD, monitoring the status of groundwater and surface water in drinking water wells, industry, energy, nuclear power, precision agriculture, the Mission Soil, and direct deployment wherever water and soil leachate screening is possible.<\/li>\n\n\n<li><strong>Roman Cibulka<\/strong> shared his experience from working at the European Commission\u2019s Directorate-General for Environment. He presented the conclusions of the first comprehensive <a href=\"https:\/\/environment.ec.europa.eu\/publications\/nitrates-directive-evaluation_en\">evaluation of the Nitrates Directive<\/a>, published by the Commission in July 2026 after 35 years in force. According to the evaluation, the directive remains necessary and cost-effective: its benefits are 3 to 7 times higher than its costs. However, improvements in farming practices have translated only partially into better water quality. Roman presented the <a href=\"https:\/\/environment.ec.europa.eu\/document\/download\/a54adc41-ab9d-4941-8393-b26dd8e7b0d2_en?filename=SWD_2026_232_1_EN_document_travail_service_part27_v2_0.pdf\">Commission\u2019s recommendations for Slovakia<\/a> together with the <a href=\"https:\/\/water.europa.eu\/freshwater\/countries\/country-profiles-on-nitrates\/slovakia\">EEA Country Profile<\/a>, and explained how EU legislation is made and where Slovakia can influence its shape. He closed by introducing his new role at GOSPACE LABS and the mission of our Meratch vertical.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"901\" data-id=\"623\" src=\"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-2.jpg\" alt=\"Speaker presenting a map of Europe to stakeholders at the GEMS project meeting in Bratislava\" class=\"wp-image-623\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-2.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-2-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-2-1536x865.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"901\" data-id=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-3.jpg\" alt=\"Audience at the GEMS regional stakeholder working group meeting at the Water Research Institute\" class=\"wp-image-624\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-3.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-3-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-3-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-3-1536x865.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" data-id=\"625\" src=\"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-4.jpg\" alt=\"Participants of the GEMS stakeholder meeting following a presentation\" class=\"wp-image-625\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-4.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-4-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-4-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-4-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-4-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" data-id=\"626\" src=\"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-5.jpg\" alt=\"Meratch representatives at the GEMS project stakeholder meeting in Bratislava\" class=\"wp-image-626\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-5.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-5-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-5-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-5-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/meratch-gems-stakeholder-meeting-vuvh-5-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Drought at the centre of the discussion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The discussion covered many topics, the biggest being climate change and increasingly frequent drought, which puts pressure on both water management and farmers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 27 October 2026, Meratch spoke at the GEMS regional stakeholder meeting at the Water Research Institute in Bratislava, on real-time water quality monitoring and the EU Nitrates Directive evaluation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,29],"tags":[68,71],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hydrology","category-news","tag-drought","tag-water-quality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":635,"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions\/635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meratch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}