All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodiesDo something for our planet, print this page only if needed. Even a small action can make an enormous difference when millions of people do it!
Press Release
We are living beyond our means when it comes to water. The short-term solution to water scarcity has been to extract ever greater amounts of water from our surface and groundwater assets. Overexploitation is not sustainable. It has a heavy impact on the quality and quantity of the remaining water as well as the ecosystems which depend on it. We have to cut demand, minimise the amount of water that we are extracting and increase the efficiency of its use.
Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the EEA
The EEA report 'Water resources across Europe – confronting water scarcity and drought' highlights that while southern Europe continues to experience the greatest water scarcity problems, water stress is growing in parts of the north too. Moreover, climate change will cause the severity and frequency of droughts to increase in the future, exacerbating water stress, especially during the summer months.
Excluding illegal water use, Europe abstracts around 285 km3 of freshwater annually, representing on average 530 m3 per capita.
"We are living beyond our means when it comes to water. The short-term solution to water scarcity has been to extract ever greater amounts of water from our surface and groundwater assets. Overexploitation is not sustainable. It has a heavy impact on the quality and quantity of the remaining water as well as the ecosystems which depend on it," said Professor Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of EEA. "We have to cut demand, minimise the amount of water that we are extracting and increase the efficiency of its use."
Shifting the management focus from increasing supply to minimising demand needs to involve various different policies and practices:
In Europe as a whole, 44 % of abstraction is used for energy production, 24 % for agriculture, 21 % for public water supply and 11 % for industry. However, these figures mask significant differences in sectoral water use across the continent. In southern Europe, for example, agriculture accounts for 60 % of the total water abstracted and reaches as much as 80 % in certain areas.
Across Europe, surface waters, such as lakes and rivers, provide 81 % of the total freshwater abstracted and are the predominant water source for industry, energy and agriculture. By contrast, public water supply relies mostly on groundwater due to its generally higher quality. Almost all water used in energy production is returned to a water body, whereas most of the water abstracted for agriculture is not.
Desalination has become a fast growing alternative to conventional sources of water, particularly in water-stressed regions of Europe. Its high energy needs and the resulting brine must be taken into account, however, when assessing desalination’s overall impact on the environment.
The report is available at http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/water-resources-across-europe
The report will be presented to the press during the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey: http://worldwaterforum5.org/
About the European Environment Agency (EEA)
The EEA is based in Copenhagen. The agency helps achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment by providing timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-makers and the public.
For media inquiries:
Ms Gülçin Karadeniz, Press officer
gulcin.karadeniz at eea.europa.eu
mobile +45 23 68 36 53
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/media/newsreleases/drought-and-water-overuse-in-europe or scan the QR code.
PDF generated on 03 Dec 2024, 04:11 AM
Engineered by: EEA Web Team
Software updated on 26 September 2023 08:13 from version 23.8.18
Software version: EEA Plone KGS 23.9.14
Document Actions
Share with others