Stakeholder Forum 29 January 2007 WATER SCARCITY & DROUGHT First Interim Report Stéphanie Croguennec stephanie.croguennec@ec.europa.eu Sylvie Detoc sylvie.detoc@ec.europa.eu European Commission, DG Environment Unit D.2 – Water and Marine

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

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

DELINEATION WATER SCARCITY DROUGHT Countries 7 doc 14 doc 13 + Norway (last 30 years) Countries 7 doc 14 doc 13 + Norway Population (Mio inhab.) 130 - 70 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

WATER SCARCITY - SCOPE Source: EEA, data MS

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

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

DROUGHTS - SCOPE Source: COM, data MS

DROUGHTS - IMPACTS Economic impacts Types of impacts Examples of collected costs - Damage on habitations France: 1998-2003: annual average of 330 Mio € - 2003: 1.68 billion € - Emergency water supply Finland: In 2002-2003: 200 000 m³ of water provided with tank trucks - 5.5 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: 2002-2003: 32.25 Mio € 2004-2006: 182 Mio € - Impacts on agricultural production Spain: 1990-1995: 1.8 billion € France: 2003: 670 Mio € - Disruption in navigation Belgium: 1976: 123 Mio €

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

DROUGHTS - IMPACTS 1976-2006: overall economic impact of droughts estimated to 85 billion € Annual impact estimated to have doubled between 1976-1990 and 1991-2006 In last years: annual impact estimated to 5.3 billion € in average In 2003: exceptional cost of 7.5 billion €

USE OF EU INSTRUMENTS CAP & RD programmes, Structural & Cohesion Funds: 2000-2006: very little or no use; on the contrary, some supports have tended to exacerbate the imbalances 2007-2013: 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 2000-2006 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 2007-2013 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  2000-2006 Some supports have contributed to set up new water supply infrastructures 2007-2013 No clear overview of the content of the future operational programmes

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

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

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

Thank you for your attention