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6.5 Integrated water management

Water is an essential resource for human health, agriculture, energy production, transport and nature, but securing sustainable management of water and of aquatic and water dependent ecosystems and securing that enough water of high quality is available for all purposes, remains a key challenge within Europe and in our time.

The results from the second RBMPs show that European waters remain under multiple pressures from water pollution, over-abstraction and structural change from multiple sectors and human activities. These pressures affect the good functioning of water-related ecosystems, contribute to biodiversity loss, and threaten the long-term delivery of ecosystem services and benefits to society and the economy. To ensure sustainable management of water resources, further policy action will be needed to improve the coherence between economic, societal and environmental goals.

Several European policies are in place in support of the EU Water Framework Directive, which together with the Floods Directive, Groundwater Directive, Environmental Quality Standards Directive, Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, Groundwater Directive, and Nitrates Directive provides powerful and essential tools for managing water quality in the European Union.

Sustainable and integrated water management plays a substantial role in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the European Union's (EU) 7th Environment Action Programme (7th EAP)[22], and the achievement of the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy[23]. Based on the review of the first RBMPs, the 'Blueprint to safeguard Europe's water resources'[24] has called for increased implementation of integrated water management in Europe. Three areas offering substantial opportunities to improve implementation and support to the achievement of WFD objectives are highlighted below.