Water Framework Directive: challenging targets now achievable
Last week saw the European Commission (EC) outline the state of play on European member's compliance with the Water Framework Directive (WFD).
Dr Jorge Rodriguez Romero, WFD team coordinator at the EC said that 16 member states have adopted and submitted plans on River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs), including the UK and France.
Three member states have the consultation finalised and are awaiting adoption and eight states, including Portugal and Spain, have an ongoing consultation or have not started.
Delays in technical work and difficulties in getting new river basin authorities operational were cited as reasons for the eight states' lack of progress.
Speaking at the European Water Association's Sixth Annual Brussels Conference, entitled 'Implementing the River Basin Management Plans', Romero said that "the price of water needs to be right to encourage a rational use and avoid wastage".
He said that "substantial budgets" are being allocated to meet WFD requirements, including €20 billion in France.
Meanwhile the Catalan Water Agency from Spain said it would be meeting increasing costs through a combination of investment and increased tariffs. Lorenzo Galbiati said that the country would have to be able to generate income from agencies to help meet costs.
The water agency plans to invest €915 million up to 2015, comprising over €833 million on internal basins and over €82 on the Ebro watershed. Galbiati said that the agency aims to increase the cost of water from 1.70 per €/m3 to 2.61 by 2013.
Water managers and authorities were also warned during the event of finalising RBMPs in isolation and without integration with the government. Romero said that this could mean other drivers and policies being prioritised and subsequently attracting funding ahead of water. Romero said it should not be the case where countries prioritise renewable energy over water.
Finally adopted in October 2000, the timetable for the original implementation of the WFD included 2010 for the introduction of pricing policies; 2012 to make operational programmes of measures; 2015 to meet environmental objectives and 2027 as the final deadline for meeting objectives.
Discussing preliminary results collated so far for 10 member states, Peter Kristensen from the European Environment Agency, said that Finland, Sweden and Austria were among the top three countrieswhen it came to the ecological status of surface water bodies.
However, out of all of the water bodies in Finland and Sweden, only one has achieved the necessary status required by the Directive so far, achieving over 90% "high" status and the remaining "good".
Among the ten states, the water body of lakes was said to achieve a higher percentage of this status over other water sources such as rivers.
The European Commission's Romero concluded: "When the Directive was first adopted many claimed that it was too much too soon. Current results show that assessment methods are achievable and that public participation on the subject is possible. There has been a lot of progress."
Kristensen said: "I'm impressed by RBMPs so far but the test will be the full implementation."
The European Commission and Member States have organised a reporting and compliance check procedure, the outcomes of which will be presented in 2012. During this period the next phase of the Climate Change adaptation policy review and the review of strategy on Water Scarcity and Droughts will be released.
These three documents are now known as the EU Blueprint for water policy.
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- More information on the state of Europe's water can be found at the European's Water Association website: www.eea.europa.eu