Organizing for America | Tim Brick's Blog: Environmental Priorities for European Water

Environmental Priorities for European Water

By Tim Brick - Nov 22nd, 2008 at 11:42 pm EST

Also listed in: Water Policy

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The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) , adopted in 2000, established a framework for Community action in the field of water policy. According to the directive, each member states must develop a river basin management plan "for each river basin district lying entirely within their territory" by the end of 2009.

The aim is to give groundwater, surface water and coastal waters 'healthy' status by 2015 by reducing pollution, protecting natural river structures and more efficient use of existing water resources by households, industry and agriculture.

This article, reprinted from EurActive.com, reports that environmental NGOs are urging European countiries, as they review their water management plans, to reconsider water allocation and pricing policies.

Water management: NGOs present indicators for overhaul Published: Wednesday 19 November 2008

European environmental NGOs urged member states to reconsider how water is legally allocated and priced in manufacturing, energy production, agriculture, domestic supply and tourism.

As member states prepare to unveil their draft national plans for the protection of rivers, environmental NGOs, EEB and WWF announced a set of headline indicators against which they plan to measure the EU 27's performance on the issue.

The priorities identified for the upcoming national plans include the following:

Transparent and publicly owned water management comprising both public and business involvement and empowerement and clear information on who pays for which water use.
Reducing waste and better use of water through the adoption of a new approach to water management, through integrating consideration of the way in which water is legally allocated, financially valued, distributed and used into policies on manufacturing, energy production, agriculture, domestic supply and tourism.
More space for living rivers, which are under pressure from human use. This should be done by creating of buffer zones in which human activities are restricted or banned.
Healthy, safe water for people and nature through reduced pollution, substitution of hazardous chemicals and making the polluter pay for the costs of cleaning up.

In addition, EEB and WWF call for visionary and adaptive water policies. With political will and sufficient budgets, policies should address the "continuous overengineering and destrcution of river systems to staisfy short-sighted and unsustainable supply concerns in the field of energy, transport, housing and agriculture," said NGOs.

By reducing water consumption and creating space to re-naturalise rivers and streams, "we will create the necessary buffer" to deal with the uncertain impact of climate change, commented EEB Water Policy Officer Pieter de Pous.

NGOs underline that business as usual is not an option, and fear that regardless of good intentions, old habits will be hard to eradicate in the face of "strong lobbying from vested interests".

Next steps:

2008: Member states to present their draft river basin management plans.
2009: Member states to present their final river basin management plans, including progammes of measures.

Links European Union

European Environment Agency: River basin management plans and programme of measures

NGOs

European Environmental Bureau (EEB): Europe’s water at the crossroads (18 November 2008)

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