First meeting of the Stakeholder Forum on Water Scarcity and Droughts Brussels, January 29 2007

1. First meeting of theStakeholder Forumon Water Scarcity and DroughtsBrussels, January 29 2007 Brussels, 11 April 2006

2. Main outcomes of the technical document and policy summary prepared in the frame of the Common Implementation Strategy Brussels, 11 April 2006

3. A group led by Italy, France and Spain has prepared a technical document on drought management and long term imbalances since November 2003 • The technical documents have been adopted during WD meeting (June 2006) • The document’s title is: • “Water Scarcity Management in the context of WFD” Brussels, 11 April 2006

4. Structure of the document • Introduction • Chapter I : Definition and assessment of the different phenomena • Chapter II : Drought Planning and Management • Chapter III :Long term imbalances in supply and demand • Chapter IV : Common principles (Conclusion and Recommendations) Brussels, 11 April 2006

5. Drought • Definition of drought • Normal feature of climate • Occurs in all climatic zones (but varies significantly from one region to another) • Drought = Combination of natural factors • Deficiency in rainfall (timing, distribution and intensity) • High air temperature and evapotranspiration • High wind and low air humidity • Drought  Aridity Brussels, 11 April 2006

6. Drought (2) 4 approaches to describe drought events • Meteorological drought: an expression of precipitation’s negative • Agricultural drought : difference between precipitation values and evapotranspiration at various stages of crop • Hydrological drought : determined from mesurements of stream flow and lake, reservoir and groundwater levels • Socio economic drought : many economic goods such as drinking, process or cooling water, hydroelectric power, fish…, depends on the climatic conditions Brussels, 11 April 2006

7. Drought (3) • contribution to the development of drought conditions • Natural or anthropogenic factors (population growth, climate change, land use) • Perception • Southern Europe: 20% reduction of precipitation during last century but diffrence between the season) • Northern Europe: at the same time, between 10 and 40% increase of precipitation during last century • Impacts • Economic (price of food, energy…) • Environmental (wildlife habitat, water quality…) • social impacts (conflicts between water users) Brussels, 11 April 2006

8. Defining supply (or demand) imbalances • Imbalance : when water demand exceeds the supply capacity of the natural system • Water shortage : if supply is inadequate to meet demand • Water scarcity : imbalance of supply and demand / excess of demand or a high rate of use compared to available supply • Water stress : over-proportionate abstraction compared to available supply in a particular area Brussels, 11 April 2006

9. Impacts of supply (or demand) imbalances • human activities that cause pressures on the environment : urbanization, tourism, industry and agriculture • Impacts • Over-exploitation effects (groundwater quality, saline intrusion, river-aquifer interactions…) • Pollution effects (pollution of a water body) Brussels, 11 April 2006

10. Supply (or demand) imbalances • Water conservation  « saving water » through efficient or wise use • Water conservation has many meanings : • Storage, saving, reducing or recycling water • Depending on which users are concerned : farmers, municipalities, industry Brussels, 11 April 2006

11. Need of a better integration of quantitative issues :first proposal for a drought management plan in WFD • Social, economic and environmental aspects • From crisis to risk management new conception of DMP • long-term drought preparedness policies • prevention and mitigation actions • proactive management • contingency planning – reduce vulnerability and increase resilience • Need of coordination (international) • Need to take lessons from previous drought events • Strategic planning of water resources management for drought prevention and mitigation Brussels, 11 April 2006

12. Case studies of the document • France : water allocation during drought • Cyprus : non conventional management measures for water conservation using second quality water or « grey waters » • Hungary: continuous monitoring, prevention and evaluation of drought consequences • Spain : drought planning process Brussels, 11 April 2006

13. Need for a strategic planning to reduce the vulnerability of water supply systems to drought - LONG-TERM ACTIONS • Water conservation and demand management (efficient use and resource protection) • Educational Programs • Social awareness • Research to face an incoming particular drought event within the existing framework of infrastructures and management policies - SHORT-TERM ACTIONS • monitoring system (Drought Plan Monitoring) • impact assessment system • response system requires: • legal framework • organisational structure • measures and infrastructures Brussels, 11 April 2006

14. Emerging actions • on demand side • reduction of leakages • improvement of irrigation technologies • improvement of water reuse technologies • evaluation of water bank and quotas system • establish adapted tax system and pricing policy • on supply side • Preservation of the functioning of natural catchments and restoration of lost catchments • Improvement of an efficient use of water infrastructures (dams, inter basin water transfer,…) • Establish an obligation for a costs/benefit analysis of alternative solutions for every new water resource creation project Brussels, 11 April 2006

15. Case studies • Examples of pricing methods for irrigation in Cyprus, England, France, greece or Spain • Integrated water management approaches in Emilia Romagna • Example of water reuse in Costa Brava • Water recycling and reuse in Cyprus • Measures adressing water imbalances management in Cecina PRB Brussels, 11 April 2006

16. Conclusions and recommendations Possible «competition» between water scarcity and environmental protection issues and objectives (WFD) in the future The link between WFD implementation and water scarcity management • POM • RBMP • DROUGHT MANAGEMT SUB-PLAN • PUBLIC PARTICIPATION • prevention of further deterioration • mitigation of drought effects • good quantitative status for groundwaters • good ecological status achievement Brussels, 11 April 2006

17. Some key messages for the implementation of WFD • When and where needed, a specific “drought management (sub) plan” should be included in the WFD RBMP (art. 13.5). • Public participation (art. 14) should also be organized around water scarcity management issues, as required by the WFD. • When developing the WFD POM and associated RBMPs (art. 11 and 13), quantitative and qualitative aspects should be jointly considered for the plans and programmes to be coherent and to create synergies where possible. • The integration of specific quantitative management measures inside the POM could add supplementary constraints (technical and financial) for concerned countries to take into account. • When setting the environmental objectives in the RBMPs, these additional constraints should be taken into account when justifying the potential exemptions. Brussels, 11 April 2006