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. Total freshwater abstraction decreased by 19% in the EU-27 between 2000 and 2022. Surface water abstraction declined by 25%, while groundwater abstraction increased by 6%, highlighting the growing pressure on groundwater resources. This shift raised groundwater’s share of total freshwater abstraction from 20% in 2000 to 26% in 2022. Abstraction for agriculture, industry, and public supply has risen since 2010, highlighting the need to enhance water use efficiency across these sectors.

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Freshwater plays an important role in European societies and economies, meeting demands for drinking, food, energy, industry, transport, and ecosystems. It is essential for human consumption, energy, agriculture, 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.

Freshwater demand in the 27 EU Member States (EU-27) is met largely by abstraction from surface waters (rivers, reservoirs, and lakes) and groundwater. Monitoring changes in water abstraction from these resources is key to tracking progress towards meeting the objectives of the WFD and the European Green Deal.

Total freshwater abstraction per year in the EU-27 decreased by 19%, from 242,000 million m³ in 2000 to 197,000 million m³ in 2022. At the same time, the relative contributions of surface and groundwater have changed. Surface water accounted for 80% of abstraction and groundwater for 20% in 2000, while surface water accounted for only 74% and groundwater for 26% in 2022.

The increase in water abstraction from groundwater can largely be attributed to increasing demand in public water supply (18%) across Europe and in the agriculture sector (17%), particularly in southern Europe. Groundwater accounted for 62% of the total public water supply and 33% of agricultural water demands during 2022 in the EU-27.

Furthermore, seasonal variability in surface water availability is changing. Due to climate change, the availability of surface water in the spring and summer months has been reduced. This is when agricultural demand is the highest, particularly in southern Europe, and increases the pressure on the more stable groundwater.

Notable achievements have been made in decreasing overall water abstraction in the EU in the last 23 years. However, further measures are required to enhance water resource use and adapt to climate change. This will assist the EU in becoming more resilient to uncertainties in water availability while also meeting the overall objectives of the WFD and the European Green Deal.

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Figure 2. Water abstraction by economic sector in the 27 EU Member States, 2000-2022

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Abstraction for cooling in electricity generation remained the largest contributor in the EU-27 to total annual water abstraction (34%) in 2022. This is followed by abstraction for agriculture (29%), public water supply (21%) and manufacturing (15%). Construction and mining and quarrying each accounted for only 1% of total abstraction.

Between 2000 and 2022, water abstraction declined overall. However, while abstraction declined in some sectors, such as mining and quarrying (-29%), manufacturing (-28%), cooling in electricity generation (-27%), and agriculture (-17%), it increased in public water supply (+10%) and construction (+2%). Since 2010, public water supply (+7%), manufacturing (+4%), and agriculture (+3%) have also shown an increasing trend.

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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.

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 new 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.

In addition, the European Green Deal sets out the European Commission’s focus on decoupling economic growth from resource use, by moving to a clean, circular economy, where resources are used more efficiently and the pressures on the environment are decreased. The Farm to fork strategy, which focuses on making food systems more sustainable, is an integral part of the European Green Deal.

The new 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.

Accuracy and uncertainties

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

· 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.

· Water abstraction for public water supply is associated with high degrees of uncertainty, particularly in tourism hotspot destinations, because of double counting arising from water also being used by tourists at their origins.

· Gap filling the data on water abstraction for agriculture, public water supply, electricity cooling and manufacturing had 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 largely 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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TypologyUN SDGsUnit of measureFrequency of dissemination

References and footnotes

<div class="csl-bib-body" style="line-height: 1.35; "> <div class="csl-entry">EC, 2020, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — A new circular economy action plan for a cleaner and more competitive Europe, COM(2020) 98 final.</div> </div>
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7. EC, 2020, Regulation (EU) 2020/741 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 2020 on minimum requirements for water reuse, L 177/32 / 05-06-2020
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<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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<div class="csl-bib-body" style="line-height: 1.35; "> <div class="csl-entry">EC, 2019, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — The European Green Deal, COM(2019) 640 final.</div> </div>
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<div class="csl-bib-body" style="line-height: 1.35; "> <div class="csl-entry">EC, 2020, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — A farm to fork strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system, COM(2020) 381 final.</div> </div>
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8. EC, 2021, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – Forging a climate-resilient Europe - the new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, COM(2021) 82 final
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9. EC, 2020, Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on the quality of water intended for human consumption (recast) (Text with EEA relevance), OJ L 435, 23.12.2020, p. 1–62
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10. EC, 2020, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: Bringing nature back into our lives, COM/2020/380 final, Brussels, 20.5.2020
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Water abstraction by source and economic sector in Europe

Figure 1. Share of total annual water abstraction by source in the 27 EU Member States, 2000-2022

Figure 2. Water abstraction by economic sector in the 27 EU Member States, 2000-2022

Supporting information

Metadata

References and footnotes