The European Commission intends to publish a ‘Blueprint to safeguard Europe’s Water Resources‘ by the end of 2012. The Blueprint will set out policies for efficient use of water resources in Europe.   Since the Water Framework Directive(WFD) was adopted in 2000, EU water policy has aimed at achieving “good status” of all EU waters by 2015. 

Among other objectives the Blueprint will address water efficiency.  The Blueprint will provide “first indications” for water efficiency targets including the development of water efficiency targets at the sectoral and river basin level. In addition, it will ain at improving water efficiency in buildings and in distribution networks.  The time horizon of the Blueprint is 2020, but the analysis supporting the Blueprint will cover up to 2050.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has just published the first in a series of five reports that EEA will publish in 2012 to support the development of the Blueprint. This first report focusses on resource efficiency.

Some of the major global issues that will impact the EU are growing global demand for food and increasing cultivation of biofuel crops, recognition of the interdependence of water, energy and land use, and the impact of climate change.  As a result of climate change much of Europe will likely face reduced water availability during summer months and the frequency and intensity of drought is projected to increase in the south.

The report argues that to enable sustainable economic production future economic growth must be decoupled from environmental impacts and that this requires increased resource-efficiency innovations and limits to environmental impact.  The Water Framework Directive was intended to define the limits to water environemntal impact by defining and mandating ‘good status’ objective for EU water bodies.

Resource-efficient technologies in agricultural irrigation, water supply and treatment can deliver substantial water savings.  Sustainable public and industrial water management depends on innovative production treatments and processes, ecological design in buildings and better urban planning.

The report recognizes the interdependence of water use, energy production, and land use.  For example, technologies that cut water use also help to reduce energy use. The energy intensity of deslaination
requires the development of renewable energy.  Hydropower while reducung emissions has impacts on water ecosystems, which limits the growth potential of hydropower compared to wind and solar energy.

Some of the economic measures that the report anticipates can inprove water efficiency includes water pricing and market-based policies.  Water prices and tariffs should reflect the true costs of water including environmental and resource costs. In the case of public water supply, volumetric pricing and metering needs to generate adequate revenues to finance resource-efficiency measures and upgrade aging infrastructure. Utilities expenditures and investments needs to be transparent to consumers.  For water used in irrigation, pricing structures should provide more incentives for resource efficiency removal of adverse agricultural subsidies should be a priority.

The report also promates an integrated apprioach to sustainable water management,  Water efficiency must be consideres together with resource efficiency s energy and land use.  The WFD provides the limits to environmental sustainability that should be applied in an integrated approach to define common limits for sustainability for the competing users in all sectors including agriculture, energy, transport and tourism. This will require strong intersectoral exchange, particularly in operational water management at the river basin level.