Europe's Water Future Insecure, Studies Find

The global conservation organization WWF and the European Environment Bureau, an umbrella for hundreds of groups in more than 40 countries, conducted the analysis. They found that none of the draft plans rate well across a range of water safety, conservation and management measures.

"The European Water Framework Directive when adopted in 2000 was far from perfect but it had the makings of a world-leading vision to change the ways we manage, use and value water at a time when the world's water future looked much more secure than it does today," said Sergey Moroz, water policy officer at WWF.

The environmental NGOs' findings are supported by a study commissioned by the European Community, which found that few member states are planning to bring more than 20 percent of surface waters into good status by 2015.

Vlatva River in the Czech Republic (Photo by Lekin)

Despite increasing water challenges - made worse by climate change - draft plans developed so far by EU member states are generally putting off major and necessary decisions, providing few mechanisms and little funding to achieve good status for water bodies.

"These plans don't create an impression that we are finally departing from the unsustainable practices that led us to the current water crisis," said Pieter de Pous, EEB water policy officer.

"It is in the interests of agriculture and industry to become less vulnerable to increasingly insecure water supplies but there is very little in the plans when it comes to reducing their water consumption," he said.

The study expresses concern about increasing water scarcity in Italy and Greece, where it is unclear whether they are actually planning to finalize plans even remotely comparable to what the rest of Europe is doing.

Some countries like the Netherlands that have lost many of their natural rivers and waters, are now starting initiatives to give rivers more space for flooding, believing that this will improve their ability to face future climate change impacts.

The Netherlands also managed to secure funding for river restoration, although the amounts are still inadequate, the study finds.

Worrying trends now emerge from Eastern and Southern Europe, said de Pous, who points to the Czech Republic and Portugal, where, he said, "rivers continue to be poured into concrete straightjackets for the purpose of navigation, flood defence or hydropower."

In Portugal, up to 10 new dams for hydropower are currently proposed for construction without any adequate consideration of the likelihood that there may not be enough water to run them, the study finds.

Water pollution remains a serious issue that also is not sufficiently addressed in the majority of plans, and large portions of Europe's waters remain at risk of becoming unavailable or in need of expensive treatment, according to the study.

Water efficiency measures were particularly poor in most draft plans, the researchers found. A partial exception was France's Loire Bretagne basin where a water efficiency objective is proposed for drinking water supply for rural and urban areas.

"To tackle Europe's water challenges, member states plans need to be visionary, abandoning a minimalist approach to implementation and becoming the central plank of efforts to tackle lasting food and energy security, public health and climate challenges," said Moroz.

Public consultation on the draft river plans is set to close at the end of June. EU Member States will have to finalize their water plans by the end of the year and send them to the European Commission.

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