THE (HUMAN) NATURE OF THE PROBLEM

APPENDIX

River basins - Water without borders

Water pays no heed to human borders. It flows based on physical laws along surface and underground courses. The discharge of waste water, whether of industrial or urban nature, into rivers and the impact of major chemical industry accidents, which “killed” rivers such as the Rhine, highlighted the need to establish a common policy aimed at protecting water. Today, protection measures are increasingly of a "preventive" nature and are applied to rivers and lakes as well as to underground water, coastal waters and the seas.

A river basin is the basic integrated water management unit because the same water flows throughout its area of influence. Many European river basins are of a transnational nature, sharing river courses, the shores of a lake or the same underground water sources between nations. When one of the users of a river basin extracts too much water, other users are left with less. Any contaminating spill will affect the water of all the users. When users work together to preserve the quality of the water and biodiversity, the benefits are for all.

There are 45 river basins in Europe that are shared by two or more countries. Water management is an international policy issue.