Freshwater: Europe

Water quantity

    In the central part of Western Europe, most of the water supply is used as a coolant in energy production. This water is returned to its source more or less unchanged and can be re-used. In southern countries of Western Europe, where water resources are less abundant, agriculture consumes far more than the other sectors — about 80 per cent, compared to 20 per cent for urban and industrial use (ETC/WTR 2001). Some 80 per cent of the water used for irrigation evaporates.

    The amount of water abstracted for public water supply in Western Europe fell by 8–10 per cent between 1985 and 1995 as a result of improved industrial and domestic water use efficiency (ETC/WTR 2001). However, a significant increase in agricultural water use occurred in southern Europe because irrigated farmland has increased by nearly 20 per cent since the mid-1980s. In CEE, there has been a marked decline in water consumption for industrial purposes due to economic restructuring but the demand from urban areas and for irrigated agriculture is growing steadily (EEA 1998).

    There is little legislation controlling water use in Europe. Traditionally, quantity problems have been dealt with by increasing storage capacities through reservoirs and water transfer schemes. However, demand reduction measures are now in place in several countries in Western Europe. These, together with greater awareness of water use in general, have reduced public consumption. The domestic and industrial sectors have become increasingly waterefficient. Examples of water conservation measures include: metering; increased charges and taxes; restrictions on garden watering; reducing leakage; user education and widespread use of more efficient appliances such as low and dual flush toilets, and washing machines that consume less water.

    Abstraction charges and pricing mechanisms are valuable for improving the sustainability of water use in agriculture and deserve more attention because water prices for agricultural use are often lower than for other users. For instance, a recent study (Planistat 1998) found that in the French Adour-Garonne basin, the drinking water supply is almost entirely selffinancing (about 98 per cent) but the irrigation tariff covers only 30–40 per cent of the total cost of the services. Other agricultural reforms include planting crops with lower water demands and introducing more efficient irrigation systems. In CEE, all these less conventional measures are being applied but a major challenge will be to reduce leakage — losses sometimes exceed 50 per cent (EEA 1998).

Water quality

    Pollution of groundwater is another serious problem, mainly associated with nitrates and pesticides from agriculture (EEA 1998). In the Russian Federation alone, more than 2 700 sources of groundwater were identified as polluted in 1999 (RFEP 2000).

    Phosphorus discharges from urban wastewater treatment plants in Western Europe have fallen significantly (50–80 per cent) since the early 1980s, largely due to the huge increase in treatment of wastewater (ETC/WTR 2001) and wide-scale introduction of phosphorus-free detergents. By the end of the 1990s, 90 per cent of Western Europeans were connected to sewers and 70 per cent to wastewater treatment plants (ETC/WTR 2001). In CEE, however, 30–40 per cent of households were not yet connected to sewers by 1990 and treatment was inadequate (EEA 1999c). Since 1990, most Accession Countries have started to invest heavily in sewage collection and treatment but its high cost is one of the major financial issues in the accession process (Republic of Slovenia 1999). In the Eastern European countries of the former Soviet Union, little has been done to improve wastewater treatment.

    Many lakes that had high phosphorus concentrations in the early 1980s have lower concentrations today. However, only slight changes in phosphorus concentrations have been observed in initially less-affected lakes (EEA 2000). This is mainly due to accumulation and (delayed) release of phosphorus from lake bottoms or continued contamination from small, scattered dwellings and from agricultural sources. Overall, water quality in many European lakes is still poor (ETC/WTR 2001). Heavy pollution in Western European rivers such as the Rhine has declined significantly since 1980 (ETC/WTR 2001) but improvements have been less significant in southern and Central Europe. In Eastern Europe, the situation is different. In the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the two most industrialized countries of the former Soviet Union, discharge of polluted water into rivers increased in the second half of the 1980s and in the 1990s, despite an alleged clean-up campaign for the Volga and Ural rivers as early as 1972 (see box below).

    Poor water quality impacts human health. In Europe, however, outbreaks of water-borne diseases affecting less than 20 per cent of the supplied population are rarely detected. Even so, occasional outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as gastrointestinal infections, affecting much of the population, are reported across Europe, even from countries with high standards of supply (WHO 1999). Lead from old distribution pipes and, in Eastern Europe, contaminated wells can affect the neuro-behavioural development of children (EEA/WHO 1999).

    At sub-regional level, various EU Directives tackle water quality issues. Implementation of the Drinking Water and Nitrate Directives has been unsatisfactory in most member states, although the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive has led to a decrease in organic matter discharges by two-thirds and in nutrients by one-half (ETC/WTR 2001). Further improvements are likely as more countries invest in new infrastructure to comply with the objectives of the Directive. The same will be true for Accession Countries in Central Europe.

    The mixed success of these measures can be related to the absence of integrated policies for water management. Policy development currently focuses on sustainable watershed management and freshwater protection through integration of quantity and quality aspects. Integration may be improved by the Water Framework Directive which aims to achieve good surface water status in all European water bodies by 2015 and addresses the issue of integrated management of water resources at the catchment level (EEA 1999a).

Policy and legislative framework

    At the watershed level, transboundary initiatives include the Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the River Danube and the new Convention for the Protection of the Rhine. The Danube Convention pledges the signatories to work together to conserve, improve and rationally use the surface and ground waters in the Danube Catchment basin; to control hazards originating from accidents in the river area; and to contribute to reducing the pollution loads of the Black Sea from sources in the catchment area. The new Rhine Convention, adopted at the January 2001 Conference of Rhine Ministers, will be the basis for international cooperation of the riparian countries and the EU, replacing the Agreement on the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine against Pollution (Bern 1963) and the 1976 Convention for the Protection of the Rhine against Chemical Pollution. The new convention fixes targets for international cooperation for sustainable development of the Rhine, further improvement of its ecological state, holistic flood protection and defence. In addition to aspects of water quality and quantity, including flood-related problems, groundwater problems in relation to the Rhine will in future be included in the convention’s provisions (ICPR 2001).