Water abstraction by source and economic sector in Europe

The Water Framework Directive promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources. Between 2000-2023, total freshwater abstraction in the European Union decreased by 14%, mainly due to a decline in water abstraction for electricity cooling. However, total water abstraction has remained broadly stable since 2010. Sectoral trends have reversed, with abstraction increasing in public water supply, agriculture and industry. This underlines the need to improve water use efficiency to meet the European Water resilience strategy's 10% target by 2030.

Figure 1. Total water abstraction by source in average of moving decades (2000-2009; 2010-2019) and 2020-2023 in the 27 EU Member States

Freshwater plays an important role in meeting water demands for drinking, food, energy, industry, transport, and ecosystems. The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), aims to promote sustainable water use, prevent further deterioration of water resources, and protect and enhance the status of aquatic ecosystems. Monitoring changes in water abstraction from freshwater resources is key to tracking progress towards meeting the objectives of the WFD and the European Water resilience strategy.

Total freshwater abstraction per year in the EU 27 Member States decreased by 14%, from 224,000 million m³ during the 2000s (average of 2000-2009) to an average of 192,600 million m³ during 2020-2023. The decrease in water abstraction for electricity cooling during the first decade (2000-2009) has influenced this trend, whereas since 2010, there has been no significant change in total freshwater abstraction.

The share of surface and groundwater has shifted. From 2000-2023, groundwater abstraction in the agriculture sector increased 52% (11,000 to 16,500 million m³), driven by rising demand in southern, western, and eastern Europe, while surface water abstraction decreased by 13%. This shift could be due to changes in seasonal variability in surface water availability. Similarly, groundwater abstraction for public water supply also increased by 9% in EU-27. In the most recent period (2020-2023), groundwater accounted for 63% of total public water supply and 28% of agricultural water demand in the EU-27.

Surface water availability shows strong seasonal variations with a marked reduction during the spring and summer. This is when agricultural demand is the highest, particularly in southern Europe, and increases the pressure on the more stable groundwater. Enhancing water-use efficiency could reduce abstraction pressure on groundwater resources that also supports ecosystems, while contributing to climate change adaptation. This will assist the EU become more resilient to uncertainties in surface- and groundwater availability, while also supporting the overall objectives of the WFD and the European Water resilience strategy.

Explore water abstraction by source at the country level.

Figure 2. . Total water abstraction by economic sector in average of moving decades (2000-2009; 2010-2019) and 2020-2023 in the 27 EU Member States

In 2020-2023, the share of total water abstraction by economic sectors was distributed as follows:

electricity cooling 33%;
agriculture (dominated by irrigation) 31%;
public water supply 21%;
manufacturing 14%;
construction, mining and quarrying each accounted for less than 1% of total abstraction.

Between 2000-2023, total freshwater abstraction in the EU-27 decreased by 14% due to a 30% decline in water abstraction for electricity cooling, from about 90,000 million m³ (2000-2009) to 62,000 million m³ (2020-2023). The trend could be attributed to the transition from fossil to renewable electricity supply with the proportion of renewable power rising from 19% in 2005 to 47% in 2023.

The decline in water abstraction for electricity cooling largely shaped the EU-wide pattern. Since 2010, total water abstraction has remained stable, with a reverse trend for public water supply (+5%), agriculture (+4%), and manufacturing (+3%). These developments underscore the need to enhance water use efficiency to meet the 10% target of the European Water resilience strategy.

Explore water abstraction by economic sector at the country level.

Supporting information

DefinitionMethodology

Water abstraction is presented as million m³ of water abstracted by economic sector from surface water and groundwater. Economic sectors are defined in line with NACE (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Communities) sections:

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing (NACE Section A);
Mining and quarrying (NACE Section B);
Manufacturing (NACE Section C);
Electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply (NACE Section D);
Water collection, treatment, and supply (NACE Section E — Division 36);
Construction (NACE Section F).

It takes into account the gross volume of water abstracted, including losses and leakages, and excludes water returns from the economy back to the environment.

The trend analyses are based on a decadal moving average: the first decade covers 2000-2009, the second 2010-2019, and the most recent 2020-2023, which will be extended as the indicator is updated. Data reported by countries to WISE SoE and Eurostat show gaps in spatial and temporal coverage, as well as in economic sectors. The decadal moving average is used to minimise the impact of missing values and to smooth out short-term effects of climate extremes on water demand.

Policy/environmental relevance

The purpose of the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) is — inter alia — to promote sustainable water use based on the long-term protection of available water resources.

The EU’s new circular economy action plan explicitly addresses water stress and contains provisions for improving resource efficiency in the context of water resource management.

The Water Reuse Regulation aims at enhancing the use of reclaimed water in agriculture by setting out minimum requirements for water reuse. The replacement of freshwater abstractions with reclaimed water may decrease the pressure to surface water and groundwater. However, caution is needed regarding the impacts of water reuse on ecological flows, as treated outflows of urban wastewater treatment plants can be a significant share of the existing river flow.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) aims to achieve the production of affordable, safe and good-quality food by implementing environmentally sustainable farming that protects natural resources and landscapes, enhances biodiversity, addresses climate change risks and stimulates the growth of rural communities and economies. Among other things, the CAP supports investments in water conservation, upgrading irrigation infrastructure and training farmers to improve irrigation techniques. This indicator provides information to support the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) for CAP implementation, which was established by the European Commission. The CMEF includes different sets of indicators on a range of agricultural issues, such as a set of impact indicators measuring the impact of policy interventions.

The Farm to Fork strategy, which focuses on making food systems more sustainable, is an integral part of the European Green Deal .

In addition, the Commission sets out a specific target in the European Water resilience strategy to enhance water efficiency by at least 10% by 2030, considering the potential water savings by focusing on restoring and protecting the water cycle, building a water-smart economy, ensuring access to clean and affordable water for all.

The Climate Adaptation strategy focuses on faster and more systemic climate adaptation and international cooperation for climate resilience. One of its main objectives is to support the reduction of water use by raising the water-saving requirements for products, encouraging water efficiency and savings, and by promoting the wider use of drought management plans as well as sustainable soil management and land use.

The recast Drinking Water Directive requires the assessment of the current level of leakages in water infrastructure and the implementation of measures for their reduction. The requirement covers at least water suppliers supplying more than 10,000 m³ per day or serving more than 50 000 people.

The EU Biodiversity strategy for 2030 aims at restoring freshwater ecosystems (“at least 25,000 km of free-flowing rivers"). In this regard, the EU Biodiversity Strategy emphasises the WFD requirement to review water abstraction and impoundment permits to implement ecological flows, and achieve good status or potential of all surface waters and good status of all groundwater by 2027 at the latest.

The Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emission Directive (Directive 2010/75/EU) is the main EU legal framework to prevent and control emissions from large industrial and livestock installations. Its revision in 2024 (often referred to as IED 2.0) included stronger tools to address water scarcity and circular economy challenges- for instance, permits will also contain binding quantitative resource efficiency requirements for materials, water and energy, as appropriate.

Accuracy and uncertainties

The following uncertainties are related to the data sets used for the indicator:

· Water abstraction is regulated nationally through permitting and registration regimes, which differ across EEA member and cooperating countries. Such differences may affect data availability and comparability. The reported volumes of water abstracted do not account for unauthorised or unregistered self-abstraction, which is a common issue in some areas.

· Several countries (e.g., France, Greece, Malta, Slovenia) do not report abstraction for agricultural activities other than irrigated crop production (e.g. for animal raising or aquaculture).

· Several countries (e.g., the Netherlands, Poland) use dual irrigation/drainage systems (i.e. drainage during wet seasons and submerged irrigation in dry seasons by raising water tables in rivers or groundwater). It is not clear if the reported agricultural abstraction volumes account for these practices.

· As the indicator uses data from different data sources (e.g. WISE SoE, Eurostat), any methodological differences in survey methods or practical differences in reporting by countries, may cause inconsistencies in presented data from different sources. However, these remain the best available officially reported data.

· Gap filling the data on water abstraction for agriculture, public water supply, electricity cooling and manufacturing and construction has to be performed because of large gaps in the database for those variables that are associated with high degrees of uncertainty. Therefore, the data used in this indicator assessment may deviate from the national data that countries collect. See the additional clarification on the data gap filling methods.

Data sources and providers

Metadata

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References and footnotes

<div class="csl-bib-body" style="line-height: 1.35; "> <div class="csl-entry">EC, 2018, Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the common agricultural policy (CAP strategic plans) and financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, COM(2018) 392 final.</div> </div>
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