1. Stakeholder Forum 29 January 2007
WATER SCARCITY & DROUGHT
First Interim Report
Stéphanie Croguennec
Sylvie Detoc
European Commission, DG Environment
Unit D.2 – Water and Marine

2. FIRST Interim Report Data Sources Limitations EU EEA, Eurostat
National, River Basin MS (18) + Norway
EU instruments MS, DGENV, AGRI & REGIO
Limitations
Preliminary results, provisional figures
Non exhaustive data
Consistency
MS who have not replied to the questionnaire
 need to be refined and completed

3. WATER SCARCITY vs DROUGHTS
Insufficient water resources to satisfy long-term average requirements
DEMAND > SUPPLY
DROUGHT
Rainfall deficiency
Temporary situation
Exacerbated by mismanagement of water resources
DEVIATION FROM AVERAGE
In addition: impact of climate

4. DELINEATION WATER SCARCITY DROUGHT Countries 7 doc 14 doc 13 + Norway
(last 30 years)
Countries
7 doc 14 doc
13 + Norway
Population
(Mio inhab.) 80
(last 5 years)
River Basins 26
Countries with a WEI exceeding 10% are considered water stressed. 9 countries – population of 130 Mio inhabitants
But the WEI is a national index. It minimizes and does not reflect correctly possible local sensitive situations
Twelve MS have identified river basins affected by water scarcity:
 26 river basins
 10% of the EU territory
 14% of the EU population (70 Mio inhabitants)
But still necessary to improve the first assessments carried out by MS on basis of a common methodology
11 MS not affected by Water scarcity

5. WATER SCARCITY - SCOPE
Source: EEA, data MS

6. WATER SCARCITY - CAUSES
The causes of water scarcity largely depend on river basin characteristics and water uses.
Difficulty in singling out
the part due to tourism

7. WATER SCARCITY - IMPACTS
Economic impacts
- Income losses and additional costs in agriculture, industrial and energy sectors as well as tourism
- Investments in water supply infrastructures (desalination plants, new reservoirs, transfers, etc) and new water efficient technologies
Social
impacts
- Decrease in employment (agriculture)
- Increase in water prices
Environmental impacts
- Ground water: aquifer depletion, seawater intrusion
- Surface water: lower river flows, increase in pollutant concentrations, loss of wildlife, desiccation of wetlands
Avregar for the 5 lastes years of €5billion per year

8. DROUGHTS - SCOPE
Source: COM, data MS

9. DROUGHTS - IMPACTS Economic impacts Types of impacts Examples
of collected costs
- Damage on habitations
France:
: annual average of 330 Mio € : 1.68 billion €
- Emergency water supply
Finland:
In : m³ of water provided with tank trucks Mio €
- Restrictions in water uses
50 Mio inhabitants affected in the most sensitive years
- Impacts on industrial and energy production (production disrupted or additional costs)
Belgium: 1976: 350 Mio €
Portugal: : Mio €
: 182 Mio €
- Impacts on agricultural production
Spain: : 1.8 billion €
France: 2003: 670 Mio €
- Disruption in navigation
Belgium: 1976: 123 Mio €

10. DROUGHTS - IMPACTS Social impacts Environmental impacts
Disruption in water supply
Impacts on water quality
Environmental impacts
- Impacts on ground water and surface water (see water scarcity impacts) with high seasonal peaks depending on annual meteorological and hydrological conditions
 Need to assess direct and side effects
Impacts on soil erosion
- Increase in forest fires
Substitution of hydroelectricity by thermic energy: gas & particle emissions

11. DROUGHTS - IMPACTS
: overall economic impact of droughts estimated to 85 billion €
Annual impact estimated to have doubled between and
In last years: annual impact estimated to 5.3 billion € in average
In 2003: exceptional cost of 7.5 billion €

12. USE OF EU INSTRUMENTS
CAP & RD programmes, Structural & Cohesion Funds:
: very little or no use; on the contrary, some supports have tended to exacerbate the imbalances
: weaknesses identified
LIFE : mainly on qualitative issues
European Solidarity fund: no use / criteria not adapted
Community Mechanism for civil protection: no use / criteria not adapted
Water pricing: few water pricing policies adapted for incentive role
WFD: request for exchanges at EU level
CAP and rural development programmes
 In
Programmes have hardly contributed to addressing water scarcity and drought issues.
In some MS directly affected by these issues, not any agro-environmental measure has been designed in this respect.
Some investment supports have tended to encourage the development of new farming water supply – like irrigation networks and reservoirs – with pending questions on the environmental impacts and the recovery of costs.
 In
Until now, only national strategy plans are available.
Some weaknesses have been identified.
 Axis 1(mainly investment supports)
Possible supports for the development of irrigation and use of desalinated water, without cleary ensuring the respect of the WFD provisions
 Axis 2 (mainly agro-environmental measures)
Part of the budget specifically dedicated to quantitative issues not automatically specified
Sometimes no support planned for water saving measures or a very low level of support foreseen
Structural and cohesion funds
Conclusions similar to the conclusions emerging from rural development programmes 
Some supports have contributed to set up new water supply infrastructures
No clear overview of the content of the future operational programmes

13. CONCLUSIONS
DATA: Improvement needed as well as focus on specific issues (delineation, impacts, tourism, climate change)
Technical work required
Support of research
OUTCOMES:
Importance of WS&D impacts
Some lessons on use of EU instruments: room for improvement at national level
Best use of existing instruments
Water pricing policies

14. CONCLUSIONS At EU level, 2 strands of possible actions:
Promotion of water demand management
Coordination & better adaptation of EU mechanisms for drought risk management
Next steps for the in-depth assessment:
Refine the analysis: June & Dec. 2007
Input for the preparation of the Communication

15. FUTURE ACTIVITIES Technical work Consultation Communication process
Tentative Timeframe
Technical work
In-depth assessment (with support of Exp. Network)
Scenario analyses at EU level and RB level
Impact assessement
Consultation
Stakeholder Forum
Communication process
From drafting - internal consultation to translation
Political process
Informal ENV ministerial meeting in Portugal
ENV Council meeting
June/Dec 2007
May 2007
Jan/March/May 2007
June 2007
Sept. 2007
Oct. 2007

16. Thank you for your attention