Editing – editing: Stelios Vasiloudis
EU countries will face chronic water shortages unless urgent action is taken, says the European Environment Agency (EEA).
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Europe is facing a water crisis of its own making, and EU countries are not doing enough to prevent it – that’s the central message from a major new report on the state of Europe’s water by the European Environment Agency.
The report, published recently, paints a picture of a continent covered in polluted rivers and degraded habitats, where overuse of fresh water and the worsening effects of climate change threaten access to this most essential resource. It finds that the bloc is on track to miss its clean water targets under EU law – posing “serious challenges for water security, both now and in the future”, the EEA’s Trine Christiansen told reporters. before publication of the report.
“Because of these pressures, we may simply not have enough water of good enough quality for the many purposes we would like to use it for,” Christiansen warned.
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The health of Europe’s surface waters is particularly poor, the report says. Its rivers and lakes are turning brown, most of the EU’s protected fish and amphibian species are at risk of local extinction and harmful increases in cyanobacteria populations continue. Only 37% of Europe’s surface water resources achieved ‘good’ or ‘high’ ecological status, according to the EU Water Framework Directive, and only 29% a ‘good’ chemical status from 2015 to 2021.
While EU countries have managed to avoid a deterioration in the state of its waters, “no overall improvement has been identified” since the last monitoring cycle. Slow progress is due in part to “insufficient funding and insufficient integration of environmental objectives into sectoral policies,” according to the report.
Increasing environmental pressures threaten to further degrade water quantity and quality. Major European rivers such as the Danube, the Rhine, the Po and the Ebro, which are vital for the livelihood of Europe’s largest urban centers and agricultural regions, will now be “strongly affected” by longer periods of drought.
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Farmers in focus
Unless there are “big changes” in lifestyles and economic growth, Europe’s water resources will continue to deteriorate, a course that will be accelerated by the ever-increasing effects of climate change.
The EEA calls on countries and sectors with a “heavy impact” on water such as agriculture, energy and transport to “accelerate the implementation of environmental policies and initiatives to achieve more tangible environmental improvements”. The intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides by the agricultural sector is seriously affecting the quality of surface and groundwater – and the sector is “by far” the highest consumer of water in Europe.
The report comes as the European Parliament and Council of the EU prepare to tackle new EU standards for monitoring water pollutants. EU countries have come under fire for trying to introduce more flexibility into the rules – while the European Parliament wants to make them more ambitious.
When it comes to the conservation and resilience of water resources in general, governments have put the onus on the European Commission, with 21 EU countries last month calling on Brussels to take “concrete action” to “boost the security and resilience of of water throughout the European Union”. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has pledged to present a European Water Resilience Strategy after failing to produce a promised Water Resilience Initiative in her previous term amid protests and pressure from farmers earlier this year.
Christiansen wants to see von der Leyen’s incoming proposal revolve around three goals: reducing the use of water and chemicals, using water more efficiently – including through initiatives to increase its reuse – and restoring its ecosystems EU. “We must redouble our efforts to restore the health of our precious rivers, lakes, coastal waters and other water bodies and ensure that this vital resource is resilient and safe for future generations,” said Leena Ylä- Mononen, executive director of the EEA, in a statement
Source: POLITICO
Source: www.zougla.gr
