Europe Wasting Water

Supplies of fresh water in Europe are becoming exhausted and water is being over used, warned the head of the European Environment Agency on Tuesday.

Too much is being taken from lakes, rivers, and underground water resource, which can take thousands of years to refill, says an EEA report given at the World Water Forum in Istanbul.

The report advocates that all European local authorities create enticements for more use of different supplies, such as rainwater, and treated waste water from sewage plants to cut water usage.

Prof Jacqueline McGlade, EEA executive director, says that crop irrigation and water for golf courses should use waste water; gardens can be watered using bath and toilet flush. She says Europe is using more than the water available. This influences the quantity and quality of other water supplies and the dependant ecology.

At least 17 per cent of Europe and 11 per cent of its population had felt the impact of water shortage during the last few years; the report found and estimated the cost of droughts during the last 30 years at €100bn or £93bn.

Cyprus and Bulgaria overexploited water the most. Malta, Italy, Macedonia and Spain were found to be using a disturbingly high percentage of their water assets.

The report said that regions of certain countries have major problems. For example, in Spain, the Segura and Andalusia river basins have extremely low water levels.

Europe extracts about 285 cubic kilometres of freshwater each year, an average of 5,300 cubic metres per head. Approximately 44 per cent goes to energy production, 21 per cent to public water, 11 per cent to industry and 24 per cent to agriculture.

However there are variations in water use across Europe. For example, in the south, agriculture takes 60 per cent of total water extracted increasing to 80 per cent in some regions.

Agriculture water use has partly happened because farmers rarely pay the economic cost of water and receive subsidies from the CAP.

Tourism also greatly increases water usage, the report says, especially in the summer and on the Mediterranean coasts where water supplies are already under pressure.

Global warming will increase droughts. Scientists forecast that southern Europe may become a desert if temperatures increase by 4ºC. It will also bring heavier floods, giving problems for water supplies, overfilling sewers and reservoirs, and other water networks, and wrecking agriculture.

Throughout Europe major variations are already evident. During the last 100 years wet regions have grown wetter and dry areas drier.