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Press Release
For use by the media only, not an official document
Geneva/Copenhagen, 20 January 1997 -- The European Environment Agency (EEA) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) are launching today their first annual joint Statement on the Environment, this year focusing on water resources under serious stress in Europe.
Water stress - shortages, floods, pollution and damaged ecosystems (see graphic) - requires radical new approaches to the use and management of water resources if Europeans are to avoid severe water crises, the joint Statement concludes.
"We have a 19th century approach to 21st century problems", says Domingo Jiménez Beltrán, EEA's Executive Director. "We just think of supplying new dams and pipelines ("megalitres") rather than increasing water use efficiency ("negalitres"). Prices don't cover the full cost of supplying and using water, which encourages its inefficient use. An integrated approach to water quality and quantity is needed."
Some of the main points in the Statement include:
"Concerted action at the European level is becoming more and more essential," says Frits Schlingemann, UNEP's Representative and Regional Director for Europe. "International organizations provide a forum for promoting and complementing national action through international cooperation. Detailed and reliable information as well as analyses of the world's fresh water systems can help promote solutions for easing related environmental pressures."
The Statement summarises many water initiatives, such as the proposed European Union Water Resources Framework Directive, the Cleaner Production Programme of UNEP, and the improved pollution monitoring work of the EEA. It stresses that new political agreements on integrated river basin management and greater public support for new types of policy instruments such as taxes, voluntary agreements and tradable permits are needed if these initiatives are to be implemented successfully.
For more information, please contact Gertrud Attar at telephone
(4122) 929 9234, fax (4122) 797 3464 or e-mail: attarg@unep.ch
or Niels Thyssen at the EEA in Copenhagen, telephone (4533) 367 156,
fax (4533) 367 151 or e-mail: niels.thyssen@eea.dk.
Further notes:
European water demand, 19502000
Source: WHO/UNEP, 1989
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/media/newsreleases/ws.html or scan the QR code.
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