In the coming weeks, the European Commission is to present a strategy to increase water deficiencies. The EP at the May session accepted the recommendations in the area in which he is in favor of an ambitious response to these challenges. As the PO MEP Andrzej Buła emphasizes, it is primarily about saving water and taking care of its quality, as well as ensuring adequate financing of water resistance.
– Economic safety and food security is something that is very important to us, i.e. we need water for the economy, primarily for agriculture, for modern technologies, for example, the battery construction factory is gigantic, unimaginable amounts of water to cool this process. We also need water to protect ourselves against drought, which really haunts us every year. And these are all very objective data, because we see a decrease in the amount of long -term rainfall, and this is associated with the fact that we do not have a way to store this water. The way of thinking about how to go into hydrological and hydrotechnical water protection is now a key process – says Newseria Andrzej Buła.
The climate in Europe is warmed twice as faster than in other parts of the world, which means that water systems are increasingly burdened. Last year's EC data shows that water shortages affect 30 percent. Europeans and 20 percent land area. Among the most serious water challenges are drought and problems with water supply, floods and insufficient readiness in the event of their occurrence or threats related to pollution.
– First of all, we need thinking and a common awareness that we will lack water. Some countries and branches of the economy already feel this. Therefore, the strategic approach is associated with the fact that we think about water as a common good, a source of food, a source of very important ingredients in our economy, we think about water as something that we should store and take care of it. We in Poland often thought through the prism of flood risk, because we experienced it, especially with me in the Opole region in 1997, 2010, in September last year, but in fact the European Union has also noticed for many years that we would store water, let us play water resources in various forms – says MEP from PO.
EP postulates that the European Commission should propose sectoral goals in the field of economical water management and water intake (from surface or underground sources) in accordance with risk assessments. According to the vast majority of MEPs, adaptation to climate change should be included in sectoral plans and politicians affecting water and land use, as well as instruments adapted to regions facing exceptional challenges, such as the Mediterranean Sea or island areas. They also emphasize that the mechanisms of crisis response in the case of water shortage, drought and flood should be significantly improved. Parliament calls the EC to provide special financing for water resistance, supported by special mechanisms within existing funds. It is about modernizing water infrastructure, conducting sustainable water management and implementing innovative water -saving technologies.
– Two documents are very important: the European strategy for water management and another very important document, which already gives us tools to invest in infrastructure, this is the intraocrament review of the cohesion policy. He showed five priorities: defense, competition, housing, energy transformation and there was also water there. Member States and individual regions can already move money by the end of 2025 with the implementation from January 2026 for investments in water management – both those that will serve to store water as well as water purification, because new sources of water contamination appear and this is very dangerous. We would like to recover water, but there are drugs, hormones, microplastics that cause our treatment plants not to deal with it for a while, but there are already technologies that indicate the entry to a higher level of water purification – says Andrzej Buła.
Parliament emphasized in the adopted document that it is necessary to increase efforts in the fight against water pollution by pharmaceuticals, chemical pesticides and fertilizers, bacteria resistant to antibiotics, microplastics and chemicals, as well as withdraw the so -called eternal chemicals (PFAS) and replace them wherever there are safe alternatives. The report of the European Environment Agency (EEA) published in December 2024 shows that in most monitored rivers, transitional and coastal waters, as well as in many lakes of Europe, pollution was found at least one of 10 thousand. PFAS, which are harmful to people and the environment. For example, according to measurements from 1.3 thousand points in 2022, quality norms in terms of perfluorooktanosulphonate (PFOS) were exceeded in 59 percent. river points, 35 percent lakes and 73 percent points in transition and coastal waters.
– Water pollution also comes from what we as users introduce into environmental circulation. If we do not have an economic regime in the case of ordinary detergents that we use on a daily basis to wash dishes, powders, cosmetics, our personal chemistry, we will not make sure that it is easier to recover this water, for example, for economic purposes or agriculture. Similarly, it happens with branches definitely larger. Fertilizers in agriculture, pesticides, herbicides is something that also requires control at the production level. These qualitative requirements should start there. Because we want, like with warm air at home, to create some kind of recuperation, regain this water, but to regain it, you need to get rid of things that simply harm us – says MEP.
The current water directive assumes the achievement of good chemical of Europe's waters by 2027. EEA analysis indicates that in 2015-2021 only 29 percent could “boast” such a status. waters. PE indicates that less than 40 percent surface waters in Europe achieved good ecological condition.
The special edition of the Eurobarometer study from 2024 shows that 78 percent Europeans are supported by the EU proposing additional solutions related to the problem of water in Europe. Over half of the respondents believe that the level of health and environmental protection against dangerous chemicals is too low and should be increased. Among the greatest threats to water management in their country, they mention pollution, excessive consumption and waste of water.
– We have to think together and try to act together – emphasizes Andrzej Buła. – Danube, Odra or Ren This is the common good of many European countries and we have to look at this in this way. If we think so and be aware of this, we will be able to overtake possible conflicts, because we know places where conflicts about water often boiled down to armed actions and those that we could not cope with. I am in a political group regarding Central Asia. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan – the leaders of these countries began to think about the common problem of water, and not, as the Soviet Union once, ran a plundered economy in relation to water.
Parliament also called on the European Commission to invest in artificial intelligence solutions, detect leaks in real time, intelligent irrigation and new technologies to improve the effectiveness of water use. MEPs emphasized the importance of digital tools for transparent data collection, monitoring and early warning systems, as well as improving cyber security of critical water infrastructure.
