Water Scarcity and Droughts in the EU
Richard Seeber (EPP-ED, AT) will be putting forward an own-initiative report on water scarcity and droughts in the European Union. The Environment Committee urges the Commission and Member States to acknowledge that deforestation and unrestrained urban development are contributing to growing water scarcity. The committee calls on the Member States and the authorities concerned to pay heed to water-related considerations in their land-use planning.
The committee stresses that any supply of water regardless of the
purpose of its consumption must comply with the principle of fair water
tarification, thereby encouraging companies especially to use water
more efficiently
The report stresses that the cross-regional and trans-border nature of
river basins can have a serious cross-border impact on upstream and
downstream regions, and that it is thus indispensable for the Member
States, as well as regional and local authorities, to cooperate on the
issue of water scarcity and drought ensuring sustainable and fair use of water resources. The committee considers that the specificity of the water scarcity and droughts issue requires coordinated action at EU and Member State level as well as at regional and local government level.
The Environment
Committee calls on regional and local authorities to take advantage of
the great opportunities offered by the Structural Funds and invest in
the improvement or renewal of existing infrastructure and technology
(in particular in regions where water resources are wasted due to
leakages from water pipes) including, notably, clean technologies that
facilitate the efficient use of water and can be linked to integrated
water resource management (IRM), in particular to address the challenge
of water efficiency (in terms of savings and reutilisation) in the industrial and agricultural sectors as well as on the part of domestic consumers.
The report stresses that planning for the European agricultural model
should take account of the most frequent and acute environmental
hazards as well as water scarcity and drought and that, in that context, an effective crisis management mechanism should constitute a fundamental element of the CAP.
MEPs in the committee take the view that the environmental value of
forests and agricultural production must be reassessed in a context of climate
change where it is absolutely vital to balance the increase in
greenhouse gas emissions with an increase in forest cover, whose
contribution as a carbon sink must be taken into account in all
policies on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The committee supports the Commission's commitment to continue to highlight the challenge of water scarcity and drought
at international level, in particular through the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification and the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
Water Scarcity: Dam water waste, improving sensible water use. Richard Seeber MEP
Report "Addressing the challenge of water scarcity and droughts in the European Union"
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/file.jsp?id=5609062
Contact information | n/a |
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News type | Inbrief |
File link |
http://www.european-waternews.com/news/id268-Water_Scarcity_and_Droughts_in_EU.html |
Source of information | European Parliament |
Keyword(s) | Water Scarcity, Drought, desertification, water supply |
Subject(s) | AGRICULTURE , DRINKING WATER , HYDRAULICS - HYDROLOGY , INDUSTRY , NATURAL MEDIUM , POLICY-WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT , RISKS AND CLIMATOLOGY , WATER DEMAND |
Relation | http://www.semide.org/topics/WaterScarcity |
Geographical coverage | EU |
News date | 15/10/2008 |
Working language(s) | ENGLISH |