The state of freshwaters in the European Union: a snapshot

Thanks to the EU’s extensive monitoring mechanisms the European Commission and the European Environment Agency (“EEA”) produce detailed regular analyses on the state of freshwater resources in the Union. Below is a brief summary of the main recent reports, broken down by water availability and water use, water quality and hydro-morphological status.

314 Ibid p. 158.

315 Product of the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University. Additional information about the TFDD can be found at: http://transboundarywaters.science.oregonstate.edu.

316 RIEU-CLARKE, Alistair (2009): Challenges to Europe’s Water Resources. In UNEP: Hydropolitical Vulnerability and Resilience along International Waters – Europe, Nairobi, pp. 17-28, p. 17-19, p. 18.

83 II.1.2.1. Water availability and water use

The European continent is generally considered a water abundant region, with 3,200 m³ of water available annually for every European citizen³¹⁷. However, as any other average figure of its kind, this number hides large differences between regions, basins and users. How much water is actually available in the EU’s various regions is defined by the combined effect of precipitation, river flow and storage.

Precipitation varies widely in the EU, ranging from less than 400 mm/year in parts of the Mediterranean region and the central plains of Europe to more than 1 000 mm/year along the Atlantic shores from Spain to Norway, the Alps and their eastern extension. Precipitation in Europe has generally increased during the 20^th century, rising by 6-8 % on average between 1901 and 2005. During the same period, however, some areas – notably the Mediterranean and eastern Europe – have witnessed a loss of rain and snowfall³¹⁸.

Variations in river flow – i.e. the quantity of freshwater resources within a basin – are determined mainly by precipitation and temperature, as well as by catchment characteristics such as geology, soils and land cover. Average river flow across Europe is about 450 mm/year but this varies significantly, ranging from less than 50 mm/year in southern Spain to more than 1500 mm/year in parts of the Atlantic coast and the Alps. Annual flows have risen in the northern parts of Europe, with increases mainly in winter, but have shown a decreasing trend in the southern regions of Europe. In most parts of the EU river basins have been subject to significant human alterations with a lasting impact on flows³¹⁹. The natural water storage or retention capacity of the various regions of the EU is changing considerably too. E.g. the Alps, that singlehandedly provides 40% of Europe’s fresh surface water, have experienced temperature increases twice the global average (1.48 °C) in the last hundred years. Glaciers are melting, the snowline is rising and the mountain range is gradually changing the way it collects and stores water in winter and distributes it in the summer months³²⁰.

317 RIEU-CLARKE (2009) op. cit. p. 19.

318 EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (2009): Water resources across Europe – confronting water scarcity and drought, EEA Report No. 2/2009, Copenhagen, p. 11.

319 Ibid p. 13.

320 Ibid p. 14.

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The largest share – 44% – of the water abstracted in the EU is used for energy production and is mostly returned to the original water body. The second biggest water consuming sector is agriculture responsible for 24% of the water (here, the water is mostly consumed). 21% is used for public water supply and 11% is used by industry. Naturally, these general figures obscure gross geographical disparities. In central and western Europe energy production is the largest user of water (over 50%), followed by public water supply and industry. In southern Europe, however, agriculture is by far the biggest consumer, responsible for over 60% of all abstractions. The EU’s main source of water is surface water, accounting for 80% of the total amount used. Energy production relies on surface water almost exclusively. More than 75% of the water used in industry and agriculture comes from surface sources too. On the other hand, groundwater remains the predominant source of public water supply (55%)³²¹.

Figure 9: Annual total water abstraction as a percentage of available long-term freshwater resources around 1990 (WEI-90) compared to latest year available (1998–2007) (WEI-Latest

Year)

Source: http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/water-exploitation-index-wei-3 (accessed 2 May 2018)

In view of the above figures the question arises whether Europe actually faces a water crisis.

This can, among others, be assessed through the so-called water exploitation index (“WEI”), a commonly used measure of pressures on freshwater resources, calculated as the ratio of total

321 Ibid.

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freshwater abstraction to the total renewable resource. WEI figures above 20% indicate water stress while values above 40% show severe water stress. The EEA’s relevant summary shows that Cyprus has the highest WEI (over 60%), followed by Belgium, Spain and Italy (Figure 9).

Importantly, WEIs have been developed for individual river basins too. According to the 2007 data of the EEA all major southern European basins have a WEI over 40% (some reaching a staggering 160%!), and several western European basins, including the Rhine, Meuse, Rhone, Elbe, Seine, Oder are above the warning threshold of 20%³²².

II.1.2.2. Water quality

Tackling Europe’s persistent water pollutions problems has been in the forefront of the EU’s water policy in the past four decades. Pollutants arise from a wide range of sources, including agriculture, industry, households and the transport sector. During the last 25 years, however, significant progress has been made in reducing the pollution of numerous European water bodies. This progress is due to improved wastewater treatment, reduced volumes of industrial effluents, decrease in the use of fertilisers, reduced or banned phosphate content in detergents, as well as declining atmospheric emissions³²³. The successful implementation of the EU’s water legislation, especially the Urban Waste Water Directive³²⁴, has resulted in reduced point discharges of nutrients and organic pollution into freshwaters³²⁵. Nevertheless, discharges from wastewater treatment plants and industries and the overflow of wastewater from sewage systems still cause significant pollution: 22% of water bodies are still exposed to high point sources pollution. Despite some progress in reducing agricultural inputs of pollutants, diffuse pollution from agriculture is a major pressure in more than 40% of the EU’s rivers and coastal waters as well as in 30% of in lakes and transitional waters³²⁶.

This means that more than half of the EU’s surface water bodies are reported to be below good ecological status or good ecological potential (for heavily modified or artificial water bodies) under the Water Framework Directive, the EU’s comprehensive water legislation³²⁷. Rivers are generally in a worse ecological status than lakes. The most polluted water bodies can be found

322 Ibid p. 18.

323 EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (2012a): European waters – assessment of status and pressures, EEA Report No. 8/2012, Copenhagen, p. 8.

324 See section II.2.3.3. below.

325EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (2012a) op. cit. p. 8.

326 Ibid p. 8-9.

327 See section II.2.3.3. below.

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in central and north-western Europe, corresponding to high population densities and intensive agricultural practices with high fertiliser input and nitrate concentration³²⁸. As for groundwater, despite important improvements with regards to some major sources of pollution, around 25%

of Europe’s groundwater bodies are still of poor chemical status according to the Water Framework Directive. Excessive levels of nitrates are the most frequent cause of poor groundwater status across much of the European Union³²⁹.

II.1.2.3. Hydromorphology

European water bodies have been modified for centuries for a variety of objectives such as irrigation, hydropower, navigation, flood protection or urban development. Such modifications can take a multitude of forms such as straightening and canalisation, disconnection of floodplains, land reclamation, dams, reservoirs, bank reinforcement, etc. All of them, however, result in some sort of damage to the natural morphology and hydrology of the water bodies concerned. The extent of such damage has been such that today hydromorphological changes and altered habitats constitute the most commonly occurring pressures in EU surface waters, affecting around 40% of rivers and 30% of lakes³³⁰.

Particularly significant are the interventions that regulate water flow or water level. The seasonal or daily flow regimes of a large number of European rivers have been altered in a major way. Most common modifications have taken place through impoundments (there are several hundreds of thousands of barriers and transverse structures in European rivers), abstractions, drainage return flows, etc.³³¹ The various artificial morphological changes in natural surface water bodies result in altered sediment movements that, again, affect their ecological status as well as impair critical human uses (e.g. siltation of reservoirs and navigable waterways)³³². Given the expanse of morphological interventions a high number of EU freshwater bodies have been classified as heavily modified or artificial under the Water Framework Directive (Figure 10).

328 EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (2012a) op. cit. p. 9

329 Ibid.

330 Ibid p. 15.

331 Ibid p. 34.

332 Ibid p. 35.

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Figure 10: Heavily modified and artificial water bodies in Europe

Source: http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/percentage-of-natural-heavily-modified-1/proportion-of-heavily-modified-and/image_large (accessed 12 February 2019)