OUR EVERYDAY WATER

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Drought and shortages: combined threats

Europe is facing a water shortage problem. On one hand, drought periods are becoming more frequent due to climate change and desertification. On the other there is a constant growth in demand despite limited resources: progress requires greater water consumption for daily life, agriculture, industry and power generation.

Drought: lack of rainfall over an abnormally long period.
Shortage: a situation in which the demand exceeds available resources.

Drought is a climatic anomaly. But these abnormal situations are becoming more and more frequent due to climate change. Consequently, the EU is promoting drought prevention plans in potentially affected countries with a view to guaranteeing that the water supply to the population is not interrupted.

“Shortage” is a structural issue and is distributed unequally throughout Europe. It affects 11% of the population and 17% of the territory. The only way of combating it is to introduce more efficient integrated water management systems. With a view to overcoming this "water crisis", within the scope of the Framework Directive, the EU is working on a number of strategic actions:

• The encouragement of policies aimed at saving water and using it efficiently prioritising supplies for people over other uses.
• The development of water "tariff" policies.
• Insisting on land usage planning as a tool to avoid imbalances between the need for water and existing resources.
• Increasing the uniform integration of water related problems in sector policies.
• Basing water policies on high quality knowledge and information on the scope of the problem and foreseeable trends.

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