SCG agenda point 8b

WGB/15160506/25d

MED Joint Process WFD /EUWI

WATER SCARCITY DRAFTING GROUP

DOCUMENT:

WATER SCARCITY MANAGEMENT IN

THE CONTEXT OF WFD
Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

Executive summary

Because of the increased frequency of drought events over recent years, the informal meeting of
Water Directors of the European Union (EU) held in Roma (Italy) in November 2003, agreed to
take an initiative on water scarcity issues. A core group led by France and Italy has prepared a
technical document on drought management and long-term imbalances issues to be presented to the
Water Directors meeting in June 2006.
The document represents a technical report, which has been prepared by the water scarcity drafting
group. It describes water scarcity mitigation measures and practices implemented in Europe and
Mediterranean non-EU countries in order to provide and share information. It is a living document
that will need continuous input and improvements as application and experience build up in all
countries of the European Union and beyond. The document consists of five parts. The introduction
presents fundamental principles and approaches. In chapter I, the definitions and assessments of the
different phenomena are described. Chapter II reports on planning and management of drought
events. Chapter III deals with long-term imbalances in supply and demand. The conclusions and
recommendations are presented in Chapter IV.

INTRODUCTION
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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

TABLE OF CONTENtS

INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................ 5
A - Values Brought about by Water Availability in Adequate Quantity and Quality _____ 7
B - LINK BETWEEN THE WFD AND WATER SCARCITY ISSUES ________________ 8
C - Actions to Avert Water Scarcity in europe _____________________________________ 8
C.1 - European research policies ________________________________________________ 9
C.1.1 - Directorate General of Research________________________________________ 9
C.1.2 - Directorate General Joint Research Centre _______________________________ 9
C.1.3 - ARID cluster________________________________________________________ 9
C.1.4 - AquaStress ________________________________________________________ 10
C.1.5 - European Environment Agency ________________________________________ 10
C.2 - Regional policies towards Water Resources Management (WRM) ________________ 10
C.3 - International cooperation with mediterranean partners _________________________ 11
D - Existing Gaps ____________________________________________________________ 11
E - Links with WFD Article 17 and Groundwater Daughter Directive ________________ 12
I - DEFINITIONS AND ASSESSMENT OF THE DIFFERENT PHENOMENA _________ 13
A - Preamble ________________________________________________________________ 13
B - Definition and Assessment of Drought________________________________________ 13
B.1 - Drought definitions _____________________________________________________ 13
B.1.1 - Operational Definitions of Drought_____________________________________ 14
B.1.2 - Drought Management Definitions: _____________________________________ 16
B.2 - Drought causes ________________________________________________________ 17
B.2.1 - Drought due to natural factors ________________________________________ 17
B.2.2 - Anthropogenic factors enhancing drought impacts _________________________ 18
B.2.3 - Drought perceptions in different climatic zones ___________________________ 20
B.3 - Drought indices and indicators ____________________________________________ 20
B.4 - Drought impacts per sector _______________________________________________ 21
B.4.1 - Economic impacts __________________________________________________ 22
B.4.2 - Environmental impacts_______________________________________________ 22
B.4.3 - Social impacts _____________________________________________________ 23
C - Definition and assessment of Supply/Demand Imbalances _______________________ 23
C.1 - Definition of imbalances in water supply and demand__________________________ 23
C.1.1 - Water shortage_____________________________________________________ 23
C.1.2 - Water scarcity _____________________________________________________ 24
C.1.3 - Water stress _______________________________________________________ 24
C.1.4 - Water demand management___________________________________________ 25
C.1.5 - Water conservation _________________________________________________ 25
C.2 - Background of water supply ______________________________________________ 26
C.2.1 - River runoff _______________________________________________________ 28
C.2.2 - Groundwater ______________________________________________________ 29
C.2.3 - Reservoir stocks ____________________________________________________ 32
C.2.4 - Non-conventional resources __________________________________________ 32
C.3 - Background of water demand _____________________________________________ 33
C.3.1 - Agricultural water use _______________________________________________ 34

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

C.3.2 - Domestic use ______________________________________________________ 34

C.3.3 - Industrial water use _________________________________________________ 34
C.3.4 - Energy water use ___________________________________________________ 35
C.3.5 - Tourism __________________________________________________________ 35
C.3.6 - Network leakages ___________________________________________________ 35
C.4 - Impact and assessment of imbalances_______________________________________ 36
II - DROUGHT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT ________________________________ 40
A - Preamble ________________________________________________________________ 40
B - REGIONAL DROUGHT CHARACTERIzATION _____________________________ 42
B.1 - Historical droughts characterization ________________________________________ 42
B.2 - Historical drought analysis : What happened? What has been done?_______________ 43
B.3 - Drought diagnosis : What have we learnt? ___________________________________ 44
C - EARLY WARNING : FORECASTING AND MONITORING SYSTEMS _________ 45
D - Indicators and Water Framework Directive___________________________________ 46
E - DROUGHT AWARENESS, PREPAREDNESS AND PROACTIVE MANAGEMENT.
LONG-TERM DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS POLICIES _________________________ 46
E.1 - Long-term resource management __________________________________________ 47
E.2 - Educational programs. Social awareness ____________________________________ 48
E.3 - Research _____________________________________________________________ 48
F . DROUGHT MANAGEMENT PLANS _______________________________________ 49
F.1 Drought plan basic questions _____________________________________________ 49
F.1.1 - Evaluation of drought effects __________________________________________ 49
F.1.2 - Legal framework ___________________________________________________ 49
F.1.3 - Water auditing _____________________________________________________ 50
F.1.4 - Water systems capabilities evaluation ___________________________________ 50
F.1.5 - Establishment of drought management organisational structure ______________ 50
F.1.6 - Identify group of risk and its vulnerability to drought hazard_________________ 50
F.1.7- Establishment of environmental flow regimes _____________________________ 51
F.1.8 - Prepare drought plan ________________________________________________ 51
F.2 - Drought mitigation measures _____________________________________________ 52
F.2.1 - Measures selection to mitigate drought impact ____________________________ 52
F.2.2 - Demand management________________________________________________ 52
F.2.3 - Operational changes ________________________________________________ 53
F.2.4 - Allocate strategic water reserves for drought conditions ____________________ 53
F.2.5 - Water resources increase _____________________________________________ 54
F.2.6 - Environmental and water quality changes________________________________ 54
F.2.7 - Timing ___________________________________________________________ 54
F.3 - Measures to take under prolonged drought to be stated in the River Management Plan 54
F.4 - Drought monitoring and networks__________________________________________ 55
F.4.1 - Continuous monitoring and control of the water consumed and water lost ______ 55
F.4.2 - Continuous monitoring of water status __________________________________ 55
F.4.3 - Continuous forecast of expected water resources __________________________ 55
F.4.5 - Improving the effectiveness of water use_______________________________ 55
G - DROUGHT PLANNING EXAMPLES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES____________ 56
G.1 - Water allocation during drought ___________________________________________ 56
G.2 - Water allocation priorities _______________________________________________ 56
G.3 - Other priorities for safety reasons__________________________________________ 56
G.4 - Singular non conventional management measures for water conservation __________ 57

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G.5 - Continuous monitoring, prevention and evaluation of drought consequences________ 57

G.6 - Drought planning legal framework_________________________________________ 58
G.7 - Other current practices and experiences in non EU countries ____________________ 59
Water harvesting with small dams and soil and water conservation in Tunisia ___________ 59
H - COMMON PRINCIPLES _________________________________________________ 60
H.1 - Drought is not permanent water scarcity ____________________________________ 60
H.2 - Drought management instead of crisis management ___________________________ 60
H.3 - Need for drought preparedness ____________________________________________ 60
H.4 - Need for advances in drought research related to effective measures development ___ 60
H.5 - Need for drought planning _______________________________________________ 61
III- LONG-TERM IMBALANCES IN SUPPLY AND DEMAND______________________ 63
A - Preamble ________________________________________________________________ 63
B - Type of Management Measures for balancing Demands Using Available Water _____ 64
B.1 - Demand-side measures __________________________________________________ 64
B.1.1 - Technological approaches ____________________________________________ 65
B.1.1.1 - Water saving devices ____________________________________________ 65
B.1.1.2 - Water metering _________________________________________________ 67
B.1.1.3 - Leakage reduction in distribution networks ___________________________ 68
B.1.1.4 - New technologies and changing processes in industry___________________ 69
B.1.1.5 - New technologies and changing processes in agriculture (examples of irrigation
methods in some countries) _______________________________________________ 70
B.1.1.5.1 - Better control of irrigation _____________________________________ 70
B.1.1.5.2 - Improvement of irrigation techniques : switching from gravity to
pressurized irrigation and other technologies _______________________________ 71
B.1.1.5.3 - Quota control _______________________________________________ 73
B.1.1.6 - Water reuse ____________________________________________________ 73
B.1.1.6.1 - Applications ________________________________________________ 74
B.1.1.6.2 - Public health and environment protection _________________________ 75
B.1.1.6.3 - Technologies _______________________________________________ 76
B.1.1.6.4 - Water reuse benefits__________________________________________ 77
B.1.1.6.5 - Enabling the growth of water recycling and reuse __________________ 77
B.1.2 - Economic approaches _______________________________________________ 78
B.1.2.1 - Impact of agricultural policies _____________________________________ 78
B.1.2.2 - Examples of pricing methods for irrigation in different countries__________ 79
B.1.2.3 - Economic incentives/fines ________________________________________ 80
B.1.2.4 - Water banks and markets _________________________________________ 82
B.1.3 - Social approach ____________________________________________________ 82
B.1.3.1 - Users education and information ___________________________________ 82
B.1.3.2 - Institutional aspects : conflict resolution and administrative settings________ 83
B.1.3.3 - Wider user participation __________________________________________ 83
B.1.3.4 - Education and awareness campaigns ________________________________ 84
B.1.4 - Conclusion : integrated water management approaches on demand side measures 84
B.2 - Supply-side measures ___________________________________________________ 84
B.2.1 - Natural catchment storage____________________________________________ 84
B.2.2 - Aquifer recharge ___________________________________________________ 85
B.2.3 - Dams ____________________________________________________________ 87
B.2.4 - Use of basin-external water resources___________________________________ 88
B.2.4.1 – Alternative sources ______________________________________________ 88
B.2.4.2 - Increasing availability of water resources_____________________________ 92
B.2.4.3 - Inter-basin water transfers_________________________________________ 92
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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

B.2.5 - Conclusion : integrated water management approaches on supply side measures_ 93

C – LONG-TERM IMBALANCES IMPLICATIONS _____________________________ 96
C.1 - Environmental concerns (quantitative aspects in the WFD)______________________ 96
C.1.1 - Integration of qualitative and quantitative aspects _________________________ 96
C.1.2 - Quality and quantity in RBMP_________________________________________ 98
C.1.3 - Quality and quantity and reference conditions ____________________________ 98
C.1.4 - Quality and quantity and river basin balance _____________________________ 99
C.1.5 - Quality and quantity in the programme of measures________________________ 99
C.2 - Social concerns _______________________________________________________ 100
C.2.1 - Socio-natural dynamics in the context of water scarcity ____________________ 100
C.2.1.1 - Affordability of water ___________________________________________ 100
C.2.1.2 - Public health __________________________________________________ 101
C.2.1.3 - The community cohesion ________________________________________ 101
C.2.2 - Social impact of supply side responses _________________________________ 101
C.2.3 - Social impact of demand side responses ________________________________ 102
C.2.3.1 - Economic category _____________________________________________ 103
C.2.3.2 - Regulatory category ____________________________________________ 103
C.2.3.3 - Technological category __________________________________________ 103
C.2.3.4 - Educational category____________________________________________ 104
C.2.4 - Social vulnerability and adaptation____________________________________ 104
C.2.5 - The cultural significance of water _____________________________________ 105
C.2.6 - Concluding comments ______________________________________________ 105
C.3 - Economic profitability _________________________________________________ 106
IV- Common Principles (Conclusions and Recommendations)________________________ 109
A - The link between water scarcity and environmental protection issues ____________ 109
B - The link between WFD implementation and water scarcity management__________ 109
C - First elements for a drought management plan _______________________________ 110
D - First elements of actions for long-term imbalances management_________________ 112
REFERENCES_______________________________________________________________ 114

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

INTRODUCTION

Freshwater is no longer taken for granted as a plentiful and always available resource. More and
more people in more and more countries, among which EU is not an exception, are experiencing
droughts – as individuals in their day-to-day lives and as communities and nations. Today, many
European countries are subject to waves of water deficit that affect their inhabitants and the
ecosystems they depend on. Events in 2003 have further demonstrated how socio-economic factors,
driving the demand for water, have even made the wettest parts of Europe vulnerable to drought.
In addition to drought impacts, overexploitation of water resources in some European countries and
in the Mediterranean in general, especially for agriculture, increases the risk of water deficit and,
consequently, environmental hazards. With reference to water resources, the ongoing destruction
and degradation of water ecosystems and aquifers has already led to dramatic social repercussions.
Unsustainable consumption and production patterns are degrading ecosystems and reducing their
ability to provide essential goods and services to humankind. Reversing this threat and achieving
sustainability will require an integrated approach in order to manage water, land and ecosystems,
one that takes into account socio-economic and environmental needs.
The problem of water deficit resulting from resource overexploitation is further exacerbated by
global warming which is likely to increase the variability of precipitation patterns, thereby changing
the patterns of water availability in Europe on a quantitative, temporal and/or regional basis.
Alternative approaches have, therefore, to be found to meet water requirements for development
activities. These new approaches are being driven by a growing awareness of the values brought by
adequate water availability both in terms of quantity and quality.
This document represents a technical report, which has been prepared by the water scarcity drafting
group. It describes water scarcity mitigation measures and practices implemented in Europe and
Mediterranean non-EU countries in order to provide and share information.
This technical document refers to different types of definitions, issues and related actions treated
through two phenomena leading to different actions and effects : drought events management and
water scarcity resulting from supply/demand imbalances. It also deals with surface and groundwater
resources. As noted above, this is a technical document, the accompanying summary document
providing a more strategic view of the issues.
This introductory section highlights the concerns of applying, in a global perspective, Water
Framework Directive (WFD) articles that target drought issues. Integrating an ecosystem approach,
the many values of freshwater echoed in our life are underlined and the actions to deal with
Europe’s vulnerability to water crises highlighted. The existing gaps in current drought mitigation
measures are then brought into focus. This consequently leads to an identification of what remains
to be done to achieve sustainable water management.

A - VALUES BROUGHT ABOUT BY WATER AVAILABILITY IN ADEQUATE

QUANTITY AND QUALITY

Many of the services water provides are irreplaceable and thus invaluable. For centuries,
humankind has enjoyed unlimited use of “ever available” freshwater. Those days are over, as
reflected by the recurrent water shortages and their impacts on ecosystems all around the world and
notably in Europe. It is time to recognize the value of all the services that water provides and to
ensure that these services are sustainably enjoyed by humankind and ecosystems alike, based on a
set of agreed values that should shape water institutions :
• Life-giving value : water may be well accepted as a basic human right, necessitating
reliable water services for health, sanitation and ensuring life to everyone.
• Social value : water is central to socio-economic development and job creation. Good
water resources development and management plus the establishment of sound water

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

supply and sanitation systems are nowadays considered as a key foundation for growth
and social stability.
• Value to ecosystems : the irreplaceable services provided by the ecosystems through
their use of water include producing food, decomposing organic waste, purifying air,
storing and recycling nutrients, absorbing human and industrial wastes and converting
them into beneficial uses.
• Economic value : water enables agriculture, fishing, navigation and hydropower
generation and is an important input to industries.

B - LINK BETWEEN THE WFD AND WATER SCARCITY ISSUES

There is a Europe-wide awareness of the full range of values water offers for the population’s well-
being, from livelihoods to recreational, aesthetic and cultural points of view. This recognition is
clearly reflected in the Water Framework Directive (WFD), adopted on October 23rd 2000, by the
Council and the European Parliament. WFD defines a european framework for water management
and protection at each hydrological basin level. Aiming to preserve and restore good water status to
both surface and groundwater sources by 2015, the WFD gives priority to environment conservation
through participatory and consultative programs. It raises the issue of water floods and droughts in
its article 1 which emphasizes the need to :
- prevent further deterioration (articles 1.a and 4)
- promots sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources (article
1.b)
- contribute to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts (article 1.e)
- contribute to the provision of the sufficient supply of good quality surface water and groundwater
as needed for sustainable balanced and equitable water use
In addition, the WFD requires that “good quantitative status” of groundwater bodies (balancing
abstractions with recharge) is attained, thus supporting sustainable water abstraction regimes, even
in water stress and shortage situations. Furthermore, groundwater levels should not be subject to
anthropogenic alterations that might have impacts on surface waters. Water quantity can have a
strong impact on water quality and therefore on the achievement of the ecological status.
It will also be essential to encourage participatory ecosystem-based management, to provide the
minimum flow of water to ecosystems for conservation and protection and to ensure sustainable use
of water resources.
In conformity with WFD regulations, member states are responsible for protecting, enhancing and
restoring all bodies of surface water to achieve good status. In practice, this is carried out through
the implementation of monitoring programs (article 8) which cover :
• the volume and water level or rate of flow to the relevant extent for ecological and
chemical status and ecological potential.
• the ecological and chemical status and ecological potential properly speaking.
For groundwater, monitoring programs relate to chemical and quantitative status.

C - ACTIONS TO AVERT WATER SCARCITY IN EUROPE

There are many challenges for european water management but also many potential solutions.
Much is happening at the community level to the extent that it seems that, for every water problem,
someone on the continent has devised a solution or is developing one. Though not necessarily
applicable in other environments, these solutions can demonstrate the capability of individuals to
adapt to the rising challenges of drought and water allocation.

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

C.1 - European research policies

C.1.1 - Directorate General of Research

The Directorate General’s mission is evolving as work on development of the European Research
Area (ERA) progresses. It can be summarized as follows :
• to develop the European Union’s policy in the field of research and technological
development and thereby to contribute to the international competitiveness of European
industry.
• to coordinate European research activities with those carried out at the level of the
member States.
• to support the Union’s policies in other fields such as environment, health, energy,
regional development, etc.
• to promote a better understanding of the role of science in modern societies and
stimulate a public debate about research-related issues at European level.
One of the instruments used for the implementation of this policy is the multi-annual Framework
Programme which helps to organize and financially support cooperation between universities,
research centres and industries - including small and medium sized enterprises.

C.1.2 - Directorate General Joint Research Centre

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is a Directorate General and an integral part of the European
Commission. The mission of JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for
the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the
European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the
Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves the common interest of the member states,
while being independent of special interests, whether private or national. The JRC provides
scientific advice and technical know-how to support EU policies.
With regard to drought and water scarcity, the JRC is a leading European research partner with
activities in the fields of forecasting and monitoring of weather-driven natural hazards such as
floods, droughts and forest fires, in water quality research as well as in climate change and its
impact. Policy support is provided – among others – by producing bulletins of agricultural yield
forecasts and supporting the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.

C.1.3 - ARID cluster

ARID was a cluster of research projects funded by the European Commission, and is dealing with
water resources use and management in arid and semi-arid regions. It operates by linking
thematically complementary projects via :
• project web pages
• cross-representation
• exchange of data
• joint meetings
• workshops
The ARID cluster includes three research projects about integrated and sustainable Water Resources
Management :
• Water Strategy Man : developing strategies to regulate and manage water resources and
demand in water deficient regions.
• Medis : towards sustainable water use in Mediterranean islands ; addressing conflicting
demands and varying hydrological, social and economic conditions.

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• Aquadapt : strategic tools to support adaptive, integrated water resource management

under changing utilisation conditions at catchment level, a coevolutionary approach.
ARID is supported by the European Commission under the Fifth Framework Programme and
contributes to the implementation of the key action "Sustainable Management and Quality of
Water" within the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development.

C.1.4 - AquaStress

The AquaStress project is a EU funded research project that delivers enhanced interdisciplinary
methodologies in selected test sites, enabling actors at different levels of involvement and at
different stages of the planning process to mitigate water stress problems. AquaStress draws on both
academic and practitioner skills to generate knowledge in technological, operational management,
policy, socio-economic, and environmental domains. It is an Integrated Project (IP) funded by the
European Commission in the frame of the 6th R&D Framework Programme.
AquaStress will generate scientific innovations to improve the understanding of water stress from
an integrated multisectoral perspective to support :
• diagnosis and characterization of sources and causes of water stress
• assessment of the effectiveness of water stress management measures and development of
new tailored options
• development of supporting methods and tools to evaluate different mitigation options and
their potential interactions
• development and dissemination of guidelines, protocols and policies
• development of a participatory process to implement solutions tailored to environmental,
cultural, economic and institutional settings
• identification of barriers to policy mechanism implementation
• continuous involvement of citizens and institutions within a social learning process that
promotes new forms of water culture and nurtures long-term change and social adaptivity
The IP adopts a Case Study stakeholder driven approach and is organised in three phases : (i)
characterization of selected reference sites and relative water stress problems, (ii) collaborative
identification of preferred solution options, (iii) testing of solutions according to stakeholder
interests and expectations.

C.1.5 - European Environment Agency

The European Environment Agency (EEA), through its Eurowaternet Quantity Surveillance
Network, complements the information related to freshwater resources and water availability across
european countries. The main aim of such a network is to quantify pressures and impacts, to give
answers to specific policy questions or mitigation measures, and to provide comparable and reliable
information on the quantitative aspects of freshwater resources.
The EEA goals are achieved through the use of data on water flows and additional information from
the gauging stations network. Data compilations on european water resources are provided by the
WMO, the Unesco IHP, the FAO Aquastat, and the Statistical Office of the European Commission
(Eurostat). Eurostat has the responsibility of providing the EU information based on a regular data
collection on water statistics, eventually making recommendations for freshwater resources
estimation.

C.2 - Regional policies towards Water Resources Management (WRM)

At the continental scale, Europe possesses abundant water resources, but they are very unevenly
distributed. The european countries have realized that water, as a limited resource, must be carefully
managed for the benefit of everybody and for the environment, in order to ensure water security

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now and in the future. This concept of water security, which considers the future of water in
present-day planning, also implies the empowerment of different countries in order to represent
their interests and share best practices. This is envisaged through a series of guidelines that will
allow them to adopt a common policy regarding specific problems related to drought.

C.3 - International cooperation with mediterranean partners

The objective of the Mediterranean Water Framework Directive/ EU Water Initiative Joint Process
is to facilitate the implementation of the WFD in EU Mediterranean countries and sound water
resources management policies inspired by the WFD principles for Mediterranean non-EU
countries. The principle is to use the EU water-related experience and the WFD approach and best
practices and lessons learnt in the whole region. Therefore, the basis of the Mediterranean Joint
Process is fostering exchanges of best practices between EU and non-EU countries. The initiative
targets individuals working at technical levels (water managers, experts, etc) as well as political
ones (water directors). The objective of these exchanges is to produce recommendations for water
management based on the EU Water Framework Directive. For EU countries, these
recommendations could be used as guidance when implementing the directive and as technical
elements for convergence of legislation for non-EU countries. Indeed, the European Neighbourhood
Policy, through the implementation of Actions Plans, agreed between the EU and partner countries1,
aims in particular at gradual approximation of policy, legislation and practice. Sustainable
development and Environment are included in each of these Action Plans.

D - EXISTING GAPS

Even with the vast collection and availability of data, and the broad awareness of the many values
of water, finding solutions remains very difficult when interests and associated values conflict.
Therefore the water crisis has been called a crisis of governance (Initial contribution of HRH the
Prince of Orange to the Panel of the UN Secretary General in preparation for the Johannesburg
Summit, http://www.nowaternofuture.org/). In most european countries, reforms to improve the
quality of management in the water sector are underway. The most visible change is towards better
coordination of water concerns among sectors. Other significant changes include wider and more
significant participation by water users, expansion of the range of service providers (from private
sector to community-based organizations through public utilities) and more emphasis on river basin
management and decentralization.
But much remains to be done. Successfully applying the principles of integrated water resources
management is a top priority, because of the enormous impact water has on development. This
requires strong institutions, sufficient know-how and commitment, and adequate financial
resources. Among the outstanding issues that need attention are the strengthening of the institutional
framework for drought forecasting and management, the enhancement of people’s capabilities to
cope with drought, and the promotion and share of knowledge among all people concerned by
water-related risks.
By adopting the WFD, the EU has thoroughly restructured its water protection policy. The directive
requires that integrated management plans be developed for each river basin in order to achieve
good ecological and chemical status. Although the WFD will contribute to the mitigation of the
effects of droughts, it is not one of its principal objectives. In most cases, droughts are identified too
late and emergency measures are undertaken in a hasty way. The latter are not, in general,
sufficiently effective. Clear and consistent criteria for an early detection and warning of drought
situations need therefore to be established. Such criteria would allow sufficient time, before and at

1
Five Action Plans were agreed with Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and the Palestinian Authority and work is
starting for Egypt and Lebanon.

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the beginning of a drought event, to look for suitable responses in the management of a water
resource system.
The WFD additionally considers that prolonged droughts “cannot reasonably have been foreseen”
(article 4.6). Prolonged droughts are therefore “grounds for exemptions from the requirement to
prevent further deterioration or to achieve good status” (Preamble (32)) where “additional measures
are not practicable” (article 11.5). The measures that directly relate to drought mitigation are left as
optional supplementary measures (WFD Annex VI, Part 5).
The considerations behind the setting up of a common strategy on water stress in Europe are
intimately linked to national and international social and economic policies. Additional driving
forces arise from natural variability in water availability (rainfall) and the diversity of Europe’s
climatic zones. Recent history has demonstrated that extreme hydrological events can create
additional stress on water supplies allocated for human and ecosystem health. In 2003 for example,
several european countries suffered an intensive summer heat preceded by a shortage in
precipitation since the beginning of the year. These two climatic phenomena resulted in an extreme
drought and water deficit, entailing various life and economic losses. The impact of an expected
increase in climate variability will certainly lead to more extreme water-related hazards and
consequently to large socio-economic losses.

E - LINKS WITH WFD ARTICLE 17 AND GROUNDWATER DAUGHTER DIRECTIVE

Groundwater systems are complex and considerably vary in different parts of the EU. The technical
capacity of member states to assess and manage groundwater is limited. An overemphasis on testing
compliance with regulations or attempting to derive complex standards would not therefore provide
a satisfactory solution to the problem. Alternatively, focusing on measures and actions that
effectively and reliably protect groundwater, as required by article 17 of the WFD, constitutes the
resort to achieve most specific targets being locally derived. Such a practice would set basic
minimum controls adopted everywhere but with additional controls applied depending on local
vulnerability within specific parts of the aquifer boundary.
It is to be equally noted that the most important element of the Groundwater Daughter Directive
relates to the requirement under article 17.1 for the Parliament and Council to adopt specific
measures to “prevent and control groundwater pollution”. While it is important in this regard to
derive criteria to assess groundwater status and identify significant upward trends, this should not
preclude the early adoption of simple pragmatic measures to protect groundwater quality. This is
even more valid considering that a groundwater protection regime against pollution is already
mandatory under the directive 80/68/EEC.

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I - DEFINITIONS AND ASSESSMENT OF THE DIFFERENT PHENOMENA

A - PREAMBLE

Water scarcity issues are becoming emergency issues and are going to play a key role in the near
future for the definition of both environmental and development policies at a global scale.
Regarding Europe, the 2003 and 2005 drought events especially in Spain and France confirm
definitely this trend and the urgent need of the implementation of common strategies facing the
problem which involves the whole European Community and not only Mediterranean countries.
The 2005 drought in Spain, Portugal, and parts of France has been caused by a low precipitation
rate on all the territory in 2004; in Spain the annual average precipitation has been lower than the
minimum measured in the historical series from 1947 to 2003. This extreme reduction of rainfall
(from 650 mm to 400 mm) resulted in significant impacts on water stored in reservoirs, drinking
water availability, hydropower potential, water quality, environmental stress, and fire risk. This
situation called for the execution of special plans for situations of alert and eventual drought,
implementing respective management measures such as irrigation restrictions, and setting
emergency measures.
With respect to France, from September 2004 to September 2005, drought involved a large part of
national territory and was still real at the beginning of October 2005 in the Poitou-Charente and
Loire departments. The annual precipitation of 2005 was lower than the last fifty years’ average.
Every year since 1997, at least twenty departments adopted water use restrictions. The Drought
Action Plan adopted in 2004 after the 2003 drought crisis has been reactivated and updated in 2005
to face this new event. At the end of October 2005, mid-term action was still necessary to balance
water supply and demand, and water scarcity has become a priority for strategies of the French
Government.
However, droughts cannot be considered as local phenomena; according to recent studies
(Appendix I, P.1 - NCAR-UCAR) drought episodes have occurred more frequently during the last
decades at a global scale. Concretely, the percentage of Earth's land area stricken by serious drought
more than doubled from the 1970’s to the early 2000’s. Based on this information, it is often
reported by climate change watch organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC, 2002), that drought severity and frequency have increased in some of the Earth’s
regions in conjunction with climate change, although clear evidence for this is not yet conclusive.

B - DEFINITION AND ASSESSMENT OF DROUGHT

B.1 - Drought definitions

Drought is a normal, recurrent feature of climate, although often erroneously considered an

unexpected and extraordinary event. It occurs in virtually all climatic zones, but its characteristics
vary significantly from one region to another. Drought is a temporary aberration within the natural
variability and can be considered an insidious hazard of nature; it differs from aridity which is a
long-term, average feature of climate.
Droughts generally result from a combination of natural factors that can be enhanced by
anthropogenic influences. The primary cause of any drought is a deficiency in rainfall, and, in
particular, the timing, distribution, and intensity of this deficiency in relation to the existing water
storage, demand, and use. This deficiency can result in a shortage of water necessary for the
functioning of a natural (eco-)system, and / or necessary for a certain human activities.
High air temperatures and evapotranspiration rates may act in combination with lacking rainfall to
aggravate the severity and duration of a drought event. High air temperatures in summer, when

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

associated with clear skies and sunshine, increase evapotranspiration to the extent that little or no
rainfall is available for groundwater or river recharge. Winter droughts are caused by precipitation
being stored in the catchment in the form of snow and ice, preventing any recharge of rivers or
aquifers until air temperatures rise again and snow melting starts. Both precipitation and air
temperature are, in turn, driven by the atmospheric circulation patterns. Consequently, any change
in the position, duration, or intensity of high-pressure centres (anticyclones) would lead to changes
in the prevailing circulation pattern, thus producing precipitation and air temperature anomalies.
Drought is also related to the timing (i.e. principal season of occurrence, delays in the start of the
rainy season, occurrence of rains in relation to principal crop growth stages) and the effectiveness
(i.e. rainfall intensity, number of rainfall events) of the precipitation. Other climatic factors such as
high wind velocities and low relative air humidity are often associated with a drought event in many
regions of the world, and can significantly aggravate its severity.
It is important to differentiate between aridity, which is restricted to low rainfall regions as a long-
term average feature, and a drought situation that indicates a deviation from the average situation,
but still within the ecosystem’s natural variability. It is very important to discern among transitory
periods of water deficiency, a cause of exceptional droughts, and long-term imbalances of available
water resources and demands, as reflected in figure 1.

CONTEXT
Temporary Permanent
Water Imbalances Deficiencies
(environmental transformation)

Natural

Aridity
Drought
(and Deserts)
PROCESS

Man–made

Water Shortages Desertification

Figure 1: Typology of water stress condition (Vlachos, 1982).

B.1.1 - Operational Definitions of Drought

Operational definitions allow for the identification of onset and end as well as of the degree of
severity of a drought. These definitions are categorized in terms of four basic approaches to identify
and describe drought events: meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, and socio-economic
droughts. The first three approaches consider a drought as a natural, physical phenomenon. The
latter one regards a drought event in relation to anthropogenic supply and demand, thus tracking the
effects of water shortfall as it passes through the socio-economic system.

Meteorological drought
Meteorological drought is usually an expression of precipitation’s negative departure from normal
over some periods of time. The exact definition is usually region-specific, and often based on a
thorough understanding of regional climatology. The variety of meteorological definitions in
different countries illustrates why it is not possible to apply a definition of drought developed in one
part of the world to another without any modifications.
Agricultural drought

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

Agricultural drought occurs when there is not enough soil moisture to meet the needs of a particular
crop at a particular time. Typically, agricultural drought happens after meteorological drought but
before hydrological drought. Non-irrigated agriculture is usually the first economic sector to be
affected by drought.
An operational definition for agricultural drought might compare daily precipitation values to
evapotranspiration rates to determine the rate of soil moisture depletion, model soil moisture by a
soil water balance model, or measure soil moisture directly, and then express these relationships in
terms of drought effects on plant behaviour (i.e. growth and yield) at various stages of crop
development. Such a definition could be used in an operational assessment of drought impact and
severity by tracking meteorological variables, soil moisture, and crop conditions during the growing
season, continually re-evaluating the potential impact of these conditions on final yield.
Hydrological drought
Hydrological drought refers to deficiencies in surface and subsurface water supplies. It is
determined from measurements of stream-flows and lake, reservoir, and groundwater levels. There
is a time lag between the lack of precipitation and decreased water levels in streams, rivers, lakes,
and reservoirs; accordingly hydrological measurements are not the first indicators of a drought
event. However, they reflect the consequences of reduced precipitation over an extended period of
time, taking into account the effects of soil and vegetation. As another consequence, the end of a
hydrological drought might be lagging behind the end of the corresponding meteorological drought,
as considerable quantities of precipitation are required to restore river and lake levels back to their
normal conditions.
Although climate is a primary contributor to hydrological drought, other factors such as changes in
land use (e.g. deforestation), land degradation, or the construction of dams affect the hydrological
characteristics of the basin. Because regions are interconnected by hydrologic systems, the impact
of meteorological drought may extend well beyond the borders of the precipitation-deficient area
and cause a hydrological drought where the local precipitation rate shows no large deficit.
Similarly, changes in land use upstream may alter hydrologic characteristics such as infiltration and
runoff rates, resulting in more variable streamflow and a higher incidence of hydrologic drought
downstream. Land use change is one of the ways human interventions alter the frequency of water
shortage even when no change in the frequency of meteorological drought has been observed.
Socio-economic drought
Socio-economic drought definitions associate the supply and demand of some economic good with
elements of meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural drought. It differs from the
aforementioned types of drought because its occurrence depends on the time and space processes of
supply and demand. Supply of many economic goods such as drinking, process, or cooling water,
forage, food grains, fish, or hydroelectric power, depends on the climatic conditions. Because of the
natural variability of climate, water supply can be ample in some years, but unable to meet human
and environmental needs in other years. Socio-economic drought occurs when the demand for an
economic good exceeds supply as a result of a weather-related shortfall in water supply.

To determine the onset of a drought event, operational definitions usually specify the degree of
departure from average of the climatic variable under consideration over some time period. This is
done by comparing the current situation to the historical average, often based on a 30-year period of
record. The threshold identified as the beginning of a drought (e.g. 75 % of average precipitation
over a specified time period) is usually established somewhat arbitrarily, rather than on the basis of
its precise relationship to specific impacts.
Operational definitions can also be used to analyze drought frequency, severity, and duration for a
given historical period. Such definitions, however, require detailed meteorological and
corresponding impact data (e.g. crop yield), depending on the nature of the definition applied.
Developing a climatology of drought for a region provides a greater understanding of its

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

characteristics and the probability of recurrence at various levels of severity. Information of this
type is extremely beneficial in the development of response and mitigation strategies and
preparedness plans.

Natural Climate Variability

T
D

Meteorological
I Precipitation deficiency High temp., high winds, low

Drought
M (ammount, intensity, timing) relative humidity, greater
D E Reduced infiltration, runoff, sunshine, less cloud cover E
R - deep percolation, and
ground water recharge
Increased evaporation
and transpiration F
D
O U I
U R

Agricultural Hydrological
N

Drought
A Soil water deficiency
G T
I Plant water stress, reduced I
H biomass and yield
T
O T
N
Reduced streamflow, inflow to reservoirs, lakes, I

Drought
and ponds; reduced wetlands, wildlife habitat
O
N
Drought Impacts
Social Impacts

Figure 2: Sequence of drought due natural climate variability. Source: National Drought Mitigation
Centre, USA, Drought Watch.

B.1.2 - Drought Management Definitions:

Drought management definitions help water resources managers and researchers to understand,
clarify, and develop technical terms and concepts. Various definitions exist within the wide field of
risk management, in which the natural hazards and disaster management community has a
somewhat different approach than the perception of risk within the climate change community (e.g.
Brooks 2003). Therefore it is important to agree upon a common terminology before using general
expressions such as hazard, risk, or mitigation. The following terminology has been used within the
MEDROPLAN project and can serve as a basis for drought risk management from the natural
hazards point of view (Appendix I – P.2 MEDROPLAN).
Hazard
Hazard is the probability of occurrence of a potentially damaging event, phenomenon or activity,
which may cause the loss of life, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental
degradation. In case of drought, it refers to the probability of a reduction in water supply that makes
the supply of water inadequate to meet the demand.
Drought Impact
Drought impact is the specific effect of drought on the economy, on the social life and on the
environment, which are symptoms of vulnerability.
Vulnerability
Vulnerability is the magnitude of losses resulting from a potentially damaging phenomenon. It
comprises exposure – the values and lives present at the respective location – and their lacking

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

capability of resistance or defence to the threat. Vulnerability is an aggregate measure of human

welfare that includes environmental, social and economic exposure to a range of harmful
perturbations.
Risk
Risk is the result of imposing a hazard on something or someone that is vulnerable to that hazard.
Risk may be quantified as the expected losses due to a particular hazard for a given area and
reference period (i.e. hazard x vulnerability = risk).
Risk analysis and assessment
The process of identifying and understanding the relevant components associated with drought risk,
as well the evaluation of alternative strategies to manage the associated risk resulting from the
drought (i.e. risk management).
Capacity to face risk
Capacity is a combination of all the strengths and resources available within a community or
organization that can reduce the level of risk, or the effects of a disaster.
Preparedness
Preparedness is the reduction of risk through activities and measures taken in advance to ensure
effective response to a potential impact of damaging events.
Prevention
Prevention is the reduction of risk through the activities that provide outright avoidance of the
adverse impacts of potentially damaging events.
Mitigation
Mitigation is the set of structural and non-structural measures undertaken to limit the adverse
impact of potentially damaging events (i.e. adaptation).
Strategic reserves
Strategic reserves are those of restricted access, only to be made use of for the resolution of
shortage or drought scenarios or for the prevention of similar situations in the near future.
Early warning
Early warning is the provision of timely and effective information, through identified institutions,
that allows individuals at risk of a disaster, to take action to avoid or reduce their risk and prepare
for effective response. It is an important element of preparedness.
Crisis management
Crisis management is the unplanned reactive approach that implies tactical measures to be
implemented in order to meet problems after a disaster has started.
Proactive management
Proactive management are the strategic measures, actions planned in advance, which involve
modification of infrastructures, and/or existing laws and institutional agreements.

B.2 - Drought causes

B.2.1 - Drought due to natural factors

When precipitation over a given region performs poorly and is accompanied by relatively high
evaporation rates for prolonged periods, a drought occurs. Drought differs from other natural
disasters in its slowness of onset and its commonly lengthy duration. In most cases, drought is
caused by either a deficiency of precipitation or an inadequacy of inland water resources supplies
for a prolonged period. “Inadequacy” in this context is a relative word, and is determined by the
specific requirements in the sector or activity.

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Before the rise of modern water-consuming cities, drought was predominantly an agricultural
disaster. Now, with large urban agglomerations - especially in semi-arid regions - having expanded
faster than water supplies can be made available, the spectre of drought faces both the farmer and
the urban dweller. Since most inland water resources are usually sustained by precipitation,
inadequate precipitation is usually the major cause of drought. This inadequacy is usually caused by
an unfavourable performance of the factors which drive the climate system over the affected region.
Precipitation anomalies are a naturally recurring feature of the global climate. These anomalies
affect various components of the hydrologic cycle to produce a drought. Climatologies of
precipitation, temperature, and atmospheric moisture provide an indication of the frequency and
intensity of precipitation, the correlation of precipitation and temperature, and the atmospheric
drying that occurs during droughts.
Shifts in atmospheric circulation, which cause drought, may extend for time scales of a month, a
season, several years or even a century. The latter might be termed a climatic shift, but the effect on
humans and their environment is equally great. Because of the economic and environmental
importance of drought, determined efforts are being made to solve the problem of prediction of the
atmospheric circulation patterns that produce droughts. Empirical studies conducted over the past
century have shown that meteorological drought is never the result of a single cause but the result of
many causes, often synergistic in nature (Appendix I-1.1).

B.2.2 - Anthropogenic factors enhancing drought impacts

The causes of water scarcity are manifold, and human activities contribute to the development of
drought conditions. The current debate regards the causes as largely deterministic in that scarcity is
a result of identifiable cause and effect. However, if water scarcity is the point at which water stress
occurs (see C.1.3), then there are also less definable sociological and political causes. Many of the
causes are inter-related and are not easy to distinguish. Some of the main causes are listed below.
The list is not in order of priority although some causes have greater impact than others.
Population growth
The main cause of growing water scarcity is the growing demand resulting from population
increase. The world's population is growing rapidly: in 2020 it is projected to be 7.9 billion, 50 %
larger than in 1990 (Dyson, 1996). Most of this growth will be in countries whose inhabitants have
low levels of household water consumption, and in which the use of water-intensive appliances is
likely to grow. Many of these countries are also rapidly urbanising, and the task of obtaining
sufficient water and distributing it to the newly urbanised households will be a major financial and
environmental challenge to many authorities. The major increase in demand is due to the
development needs of the growing population and, primarily, from the need to grow sufficient food
to feed the increasing population.
Climatic change and variability
There is a great deal of debate regarding the issue of global climate change. Whilst there is a wide-
spread view that global warming is happening, this is yet to be conclusively scientifically proven
and the effect of this phenomenon on water resources is unknown. The consensus is that the effect
will be to accentuate the extremes with more pronounced droughts and more severe flooding
(Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability - IPCC, 2001). If it persists, climatic
zones are likely to migrate, leaving the climate of some regions dryer, others wetter, and all more
variable and unpredictable (Schaer et al. 2004). Certain regions dependent on water (e.g. major
farming areas, or large population centres) will experience more water scarcity, while others will
become more humid. It is an open question what the net effect on water supply will be, but in any
case there will be transitional and frictional costs in regions that become drier.

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Land use
The degradation and land use conversion of watersheds and catchments may reduce the amount of
usable water available downstream. While reduction of vegetation cover may result in higher
runoff, it reduces groundwater infiltration and the storage capacity of dams and lakes through
sedimentation. The draining of large scale wetlands or large scale deforestation may change the
micro-climate of a region.
The consequences of poor land management and farming methods risk pushing communities ever
closer to the point of vulnerability where even small changes in conditions can have disastrous
effects.
Another issue related to land use is the development of "thirsty" crops, particularly in sensitive
areas such as mountain catchments, surroundings of wetlands or already water stress facing regions.
With regards to Europe, it has been estimated that about 42 % of the total land area is farmland
(comprising 24 % arable, 16 % permanent crops, and 2 % grassland), 33 % forest and 1 % urban
(EEA, 1995). The European Union, as part of its reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, is
committed to a policy of increasing afforestation. In Europe as a whole, forest cover has increased
by about 10 % over the past 30 years and it is calculated that each decade 2 % of agricultural land is
lost to urbanisation. Both these changes will have a significant effect on the hydrology of the local
area. It is generally accepted that afforestation of a catchment reduces mean run-off, through
increased interception and evapotraspiration, but is important to stress that this effect must be
balanced with the important ecological functions played by a forested catchment in terms of
protection from soil erosion and nature conservation. The precise impact on the streamflow will,
however, vary depending on the type of forest, density of planting and land management practice.
Urbanisation has been shown to lead to increased surface run-off, reduced infiltration and reduced
baseflows locally. In Mediterranean regions, the semi-arid climate coupled with poor land and crop
management can lead to land degradation. It is estimated that about 44 % of Spain is affected by
some kind of soil erosion. Soil erosion reduces the capacity of infiltration and increases the
vulnerability of a region to drought.
Water quality
The pollution of water supplies reduces the availability of clean water for usage. This is particularly
severe during times of water shortages. In normal conditions the capacity of a river to accept a
given pollution load is determined by the average dilution factor. As water becomes scarcer, rivers
and streams become increasingly sensitive to the effects of pollution, as do those human and other
living organisms which depend on the water. This may happen to surface supplies (e.g. a river or
lake used for drinking water supply) or groundwater, and the pollution may origin from industrial
discharge, agro-chemical runoff from agricultural fields, the illegal disposal of civil discharges, or
the release of insufficiently treated sewage from municipal works. Seen from the other point of
view, the reduction of water pollution can increase the usable water supply.
Water demand
A growing and unmanaged demand for water will accelerate the arrival of conditions of scarcity.
The widespread misconception that there is plenty of water and that the only problem is getting it to
the right place at the right time still persists as a relict of the supply driven water resources
management. Reducing and managing the demand for water, enforcing the efficiency of use and
introducing water conservation measures requires policy and legislative attention.
Legislation and water resource management
Poor or inadequate legislation can exacerbate the effects of water scarcity. Legislation acts which
give exclusive rights to some users are necessary to provide security for investment (usually in the
agricultural sector), but they can result in serious jeopardy during times of scarcity. Water resources
management and development policies can also have a direct effect on the capacity of some sectors
to survive water scarcity periods. If these are inequitable, inefficient, or do not provide for at least

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the basic needs of all citizens, then a particular occurrence of water scarcity will result in conditions
of drought.
International waters
The use of water in international rivers of cross-boundary catchment areas by upstream countries
may lead to conditions of drought in downstream countries. This is a problem which is obviously
exacerbated during times of scarcity. It is important that communication is maintained between
riparian countries through a variety of mechanisms including special protocols, joint commissions,
memoranda of agreement, treaties etc. It is important that these agreements are established during
times of water abundance rather than in times of crisis.
Political realities
Politicians and decision-makers are the persons who have greatest influence on the allocation of
scarce financial budgets and the adoption of policies. Unfortunately, the temporal perspective of
many politicians does not coincide with the temporal dimension of a prudent water resources
management, resulting in decisions being made on the basis of short term political benefits only.

B.2.3 - Drought perceptions in different climatic zones

The observed changes in precipitation rates over Europe in the 20th century follow the general
hemispheric trend of increasing precipitation at mid and high latitudes and decreasing precipitation
in the subtropics (Climate Change: the scientific basis – IPCC, 2001). The observations show a
strong decadal variation in drought frequency.
Northern Europe
Annual precipitation over Northern Europe has increased by between 10 % and 40 % in the last
century; the strongest increases are found in Scandinavia and Western Russia. The changes in
Central Europe are less pronounced and include both increases (in the western part) and decreases
(in the eastern part). The trend towards increasing precipitation in Northern Europe would continue
at a rate of 1 % to 2 % per decade. An increasing trend is expected for the winter as well as the
summer season. The projected changes for Western and Central Europe (e.g. France and Germany)
are small or ambiguous (Appendix I – P.3 Project Acacia).
Southern Europe
Most of the Mediterranean basin has experienced up to 20 % reduction of precipitation during the
last century. The projections for the 21st century show further decreases in precipitation over
Southern Europe, but not by more than, at most, about 1 %. Contrary to Northern Europe, there is a
marked difference between the seasons: apart from the Balkans and Turkey, Southern Europe can
expect more precipitation in the winter while in the summer precipitation is projected to decrease by
up to 5 % per decade. The effects of aerosol pollution over the Mediterranean, implying sea-surface
cooling and heating of the atmosphere, are likely to contribute to the reduced summer precipitation
in the region (Climate Change: the scientific basis – IPCC, 2001).

B.3 - Drought indices and indicators

Because there is no single definition for drought, its onset and termination are difficult to determine.
In fact, as a drought does not begin with an extreme meteorological event, like a flood, its onset
may be difficult to recognize for stakeholders. Rather, the onset of drought is gradual and drought
usually hits different regions of a country, with varying levels of intensity and at different moments.
A drought indicator is an objective measure of the system status that can help agencies identify the
onset, increasing or decreasing severity, and end of a drought. But no single indicator or index alone
can precisely describe the onset and severity of the event. As a consequence of these characteristics,
effective early-warning systems for drought must be based on multiple indicators to fully describe a
drought event development and severity (see chapter II.C).

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

Tracking various indicators provides crucial means to monitor drought. Common indicators of
drought include meteorological variables such as precipitation and evaporation, as well as
hydrological variables such as stream flow, groundwater levels, reservoirs and lakes levels, snow
pack and soil moisture. Numerous climate and water supply indices are in widespread use to picture
the severity of drought conditions and to represent it in a probabilistic perspective. Each index has
strengths and weaknesses which need to be clearly understood before being applied.
Drought indices assimilate a large number of data into a comprehensible big picture. A drought
index value is typically a single number, far more useful than raw data for decision making. There
are several indices that measure how much precipitation for a given period of time has deviated
from historically established norms. Although none of the major indices is inherently superior to the
rest in all circumstances, some indices are better suited than others for certain uses. In the
international publications different indices have been discussed and applied. Among those we
mention (Appendix I-P.4, 1.2):
• Percent of Normal
• Deciles
• Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)
• Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI)
• Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI)
The interest in developing indexes is represented in the scientific literature by new approaches such
as PAI – Palfai Aridity Index (Palfai, 2002), or RDI - Reconnaissance Drought Index (Tsakiris,
2004), among others. Furthermore, plans generally call for certain measures to be initiated when a
drought indicator reaches a predefined level. Trigger levels can be refined through computer
modelling to strike an acceptable balance between the frequency of drought declarations and the
effectiveness of an early response. The nature of the indicator and the level at which responses are
triggered should be selected to reduce economic and environmental consequences.

B.4 - Drought impacts per sector

Drought should not be viewed as a merely physical phenomenon or natural event. Its impacts on
society result from the interplay between a natural event (less precipitation than expected resulting
from natural climatic variability) and the demand people place on water supply.
When a drought event begins, the agricultural sector is usually the first to be affected because of its
heavy dependence on stored soil water. Soil water can be rapidly depleted during extended dry
periods. If precipitation deficiencies continue, sectors dependent on other sources of water will
begin to feel the effects of the shortage, too.
Sectors relying on surface water (i.e. reservoirs and lakes) and subsurface water (i.e. groundwater)
are usually the last to be affected. A short-term drought that persists for 3 to 6 months may have
little impact on these sectors, depending on the characteristics of the hydrologic system and water
use requirements.
When precipitation returns to normal and meteorological drought conditions have abated, the
sequence is repeated for the recovery of surface and subsurface water supplies. Soil water reserves
are replenished first, followed by stream-flow, reservoirs, lakes, and groundwater. Drought impacts
may diminish rapidly in the agricultural sector because of its reliance on soil water, but linger for
months or even years in other sectors depending on stored surface or subsurface supplies.
Groundwater users, often the last to be affected by drought during its onset, may be last to
experience a return to normal water levels. The length of the recovery period is a function of the
intensity of the drought, its duration, and the quantity of precipitation received as the episode
terminates.
Drought produces a complex matrix of impacts that spans many sectors of the economy and reaches
well beyond the area that is physically experiencing the drought.

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Impacts are commonly differentiated into direct and indirect. Reduced crop, rangeland, and forest
productivity, increased fire hazard, reduced water levels, increased livestock and wildlife mortality
rates, or damage to wildlife and fish habitat are examples of direct impacts.
The consequences of the direct impacts lead to indirect impacts. For example, a reduction in crop,
rangeland and forest productivity may result in reduced income for farmers and agro-industry,
increased prices for food and timber, unemployment, reduced tax volume because of reduced
expenditures, foreclosures on bank loans to farmers and businesses, migration, and disaster relief
programs.
The impacts of drought can be categorized as economic, environmental and social (figure 3).

Natural Climate Variability Anthropogenic Factors

Economic Social Environmental

Figure 3: Sequence of drought impacts.

B.4.1 - Economic impacts

Many economic impacts occur in agriculture and related sectors, including forestry and fisheries,
because of the reliance of these sectors on surface and subsurface water supplies. In addition to
obvious losses in yields in both crop and livestock production, drought is associated to increases of
insect infestations, plant diseases and wind erosion. The incidence of forest and range fires
substantially augments during extended droughts, which in turn places both human and wildlife
populations at higher levels of risk.
Income loss is another indicator used in assessing the impacts of drought because a lot of sectors are
affected. Reduced income for farmers has a ripple effect. Retailers and others who provide goods
and services to farmers face reduced business, leading to unemployment, increased credit risk for
financial institutions, capital shortfalls and loss of tax revenue for government. Less discretionary
income affects recreation and tourism industries. Prices of food, energy and other products increase
as supplies are reduced. In some cases, local shortages of certain goods result in the need to import
these goods from outside the stricken affected region. Reduced river discharge impairs the
navigation on rivers and causes an increase of transportation costs, because products must be
transported by rail or road. Hydropower production may also be curtailed significantly. For the
2003 summer drought in Europe, the MunichRe reinsurance company estimated economic losses of
approximately US$ 13 billion, of which large parts were not insured (MunichRe 2004).

B.4.2 - Environmental impacts

Environmental losses are the result of damages to plant and animal species, wildlife habitat, air and
water quality, forest and range fires, degradation of landscape quality, loss of biodiversity and soil
erosion. Some of the effects are short-term and conditions quickly return to normal situation after
the end of the drought. Other environmental effects linger for some time or may even become
permanent. These effects are enhanced, if the management of water resources is permanently not
sustainable at all, as often true for wetlands (Zacharias et al., 2003). Wildlife habitat, for example,
may be degraded through the loss of wetlands, lakes and vegetation. This habitat change can have

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negative impacts on species and, even more, their individuals. However, some species may recover
from this temporary aberration. The degradation of landscape quality, including increased soil
erosion, may lead to a more permanent loss of biological diversity and productivity of the
landscape. Although environmental losses are difficult to quantify, growing public awareness and
concern for environmental quality has forced public officials to focus greater attention and
resources on these effects.
Often drought stress on plants and ecosystems is enhanced by a combination of stress factors; e.g.
Matyssek et al. (2006) reviewed the interactions between drought and ozone stress in forest trees,
finding a strongly reduced tolerance under exposure of the combined stress as well as a consequent
reduced carbon fixation of forests. As for the 2003 summer drought in Europe, Ciais et al. (2005)
found a reduction of up to 30 % in gross primary productivity over Europe, resulting in a strong
anomalous net source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and hence a reversion of the carbon
sequestration by European ecosystems of the previous years.
Environmental impacts from irrigation can be of different types: aquifer exhaustion from over
abstraction, salinization of groundwater, increased erosion of cultivated soils on slopes and water
pollution by nutrients and pesticides. These impacts are not well documented in many EU member
states but different case studies show that over-abstraction and salinization of aquifers occur in
many parts of the Mediterranean coastline (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece) and some localized
areas in northern Europe (the Netherlands) (Digital Atlas of Global Water Quality, UN
GEMS/Water Programme). Soil erosion is particularly severe in Spain, Portugal and Greece. The
desiccation of former wetlands and the destruction of former high nature value habitats are
significant in different regions of both southern and northern Europe (west France, inland Spain,
Hungary and southeast England).

B.4.3 - Social impacts

Social impacts mainly involve public safety, health, conflicts between water users, reduced quality
of life, and inequities in the distribution of impacts. Many of the impacts specified as economic and
environmental have social components as well (see III-C.2).

C - DEFINITION AND ASSESSMENT OF SUPPLY/DEMAND IMBALANCES

An imbalance in water supply and demand is a situation where there is insufficient water to satisfy
long-term average requirements. It is important, however, to underline the difference between
imbalances, arising when water demand by society exceeds the supply capacity of the natural
system, and aridity, which is a natural phenomenon, describing generally low water availability of
an ecosystem due to low precipitation and/or high evaporation rates.

C.1 - Definition of imbalances in water supply and demand

C.1.1 - Water shortage

A water shortage can be described as any situation in which water supply is inadequate to meet
demand. The term “water shortage” has the following specific meanings:
- a dearth, or absolute shortage,
- low levels of water supply relative to minimum levels necessary for basic needs.
It can be measured by annual renewable flows (in cubic meters) per head of population, or its
reciprocal, i.e. the number of people dependent on each unit of water (e.g. millions of people per
cubic kilometre).
The frequency and/or cause of a shortage may indicate the best way to overcome it. Droughts are
temporary, but reoccurring. Thus, depending upon drought frequency, a solution to the problems

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created by drought may be reducing demand and/or augmenting supply. On the other hand, water
contamination can put a water supply out of commission permanently, or at least until treatment
technology becomes affordable. The latter case is similar to developing a new source of supply.
Water shortage caused by inadequate planning or equipment may be overcome by putting attention
to design and capital improvements. Shortages resulting solely from increased demand for water
resources may be best eliminated through long-term resources management.
A comparison of projected supply and demand indicates whether a utility faces a potential water
shortage. Ideally, a utility should know not only whether it is likely to have a shortage, but how
much of a shortage. This would enable the development of responses based on the projected
magnitude of an impending shortage. In reality, it is very difficult to estimate the projected
magnitude of a shortage because of the difficulty involved in estimating available supplies.
Therefore, the primary objective is to determine whether a utility faces the possibility of a shortage.
The secondary objective is to determine, if possible, the magnitude of this potential shortage.
Selected demand reduction options should be related to the degree of water shortage that exists. For
example, imposing water rationing upon customers would be inadequate, if only a five percent
deficit in your normal water supply occurred.

C.1.2 - Water scarcity

In popular usage, “scarcity” is a situation where there is insufficient water to satisfy normal
requirements. However, this common-sense definition is of little use to policy makers and planners.
There are degrees of scarcity - absolute, life-threatening, seasonal, temporary, cyclical, etc.
Populations with normally high levels of consumption may experience temporary scarcity more
severely than other societies who are accustomed to use much less water. Scarcity often arises
because of socio-economic trends having little to do with basic needs. Defining scarcity for policy-
making purposes is very difficult.
The term “water scarcity” has the following specific meanings:
- an imbalance of supply and demand under prevailing institutional arrangements and/or prices,
- an excess of demand over available supply,
- a high rate of utilization compared to available supply, especially if the remaining supply
potentials are difficult or costly to tap.
Because this is a relative concept, it is difficult to capture in single indices. However, current
utilization as a percentage of total available resources can illustrate the scale of the problem and the
latitude for policymakers.
Some causes of water scarcity are natural, others are of anthropogenic. The impact of natural
processes can be aggravated by human responses. Human behaviour can modify our physical
environment in a way that the availability of usable water resources is reduced. The demand for
water may be artificially stimulated, so that at a constant rate of supply the resource becomes
“scarce”.

C.1.3 - Water stress

Water stress is generally related to an over-proportionate abstraction of water in relation to the

resources available in a particular area. The ratio between total freshwater abstraction and total
resources indicates in a general way the availability of water and the pressure on water resources.
Water stress occurs when the demand for water exceeds the available amount during a certain
period or when poor quality restricts its use. It frequently occurs in areas with low rainfall and high
population density or in areas where agricultural or industrial activities are intense. Even where
sufficient long-term freshwater resources exist, seasonal or annual variations in the availability of
freshwater may at times cause stress. Water stress induces deterioration of fresh water resources in
terms of quantity (aquifer over-exploitation, dry rivers, etc) and quality (eutrophication, organic

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matter pollution, saline intrusion, etc). Such deterioration can result in health problems and have a
negative influence on ecosystems.
The Water Exploitation Index (WEI) in a country is the mean annual total demand for freshwater
divided by the long-term average freshwater resources. It gives an indication of how the total water
demand puts pressure on the water resource (figure 4). According to the European Environmental
Agency (EEA, 2002), a total of 20 countries (50 % of Europe’s population) can be considered as
non-stressed, mainly in Central and Northern Europe. When not considering water abstraction for
energy cooling, nine countries can be considered as having low water stress (15 % of european
population). These include Belgium, Denmark, Romania and southern countries (Greece, Portugal
and Turkey). Six countries (Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Malta and Spain) are considered to
be water stressed (35 % of European population).

Figure 4: Water Exploitation Index (%). EEA 2002.

C.1.4 - Water demand management

Water demand management refers to the implementation of policies or measures which serve to
control or influence the amount of water used (EEA Glossary).
The relationship between water abstraction and water availability has turned into a major stress
factor in the exploitation of water resources in Europe. Therefore, it is logical that the investigation
of sustainable water use is increasingly concentrating on the possibilities of influencing water
demand in a favourable way for the water environment. Demand management includes initiatives
having the objective of reducing the amount of water used (e.g. the introduction of economic
instruments and metering), usually accompanied by information and educational programmes to
encourage more rational use. According to the EEA, management can be considered as a part of
water conservation policy, which is a more general concept, describing initiatives with the aim of
protecting the aquatic environment and making a wiser use of water resources.

C.1.5 - Water conservation

While there is no universally accepted definition of water conservation, this term is often used in
the sense of “saving water” through efficient or wise use. People do not always agree on the

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meaning of “efficiency” because there are various degrees of efficiency. For example, efficient
residential water use can range from reducing toilet tank flows and turning the tap off when water is
not in use (activities that do not require significant, if any, lifestyle changes), to planting low-water-
use landscapes and car washing restrictions (activities that do require environmental or lifestyle
changes).
In terms of utility management activities for dealing with water shortages, conservation can mean
both short-term curtailment of demand and long-term resource management. Short-term curtailment
of demand can be achieved through a vigorous public information programme, which can include
both voluntary and enforced actions. The curtailment is temporary, and after a shortage is over
consumers usually resume their former water use habits. Long-term resource management involves
efficient use and resource protection strategies designed to achieve permanent changes in how water
is managed and used, including policy changes like the removal of subsidies for thirsty crops in
water-scarce areas. Water supply companies and authorities often undertake activities under normal
circumstances to promote efficient use of water.
Today, water conservation has many meanings. It means storing, saving, reducing or recycling
water. In detail it denotes:
for farmers who irrigate
- improving application practices via surge valves, special nozzles on sprinkler systems, soil
moisture and crop water needs sensors
- increasing uniformity of application, thereby allowing less water to be used
- using meteorological data to balance water applications with available soil moisture and
crop water needs
- lining diversion canals and ditches to minimize seepage and leaks
- irrigating with recycled water rather than freshwater that could be used after treatment for
potable water
for municipalities
- encouraging residents to install and use high efficiency plumbing fixtures and educate them
about water-saving habits
- reducing peak demands to avoid the extra-costs of investing in additional pumping and
treatment plants
- metering water (customers pay for what they use)
- substituting recycled water for non potable application for urban irrigation of sports facilities
and parks
- increasing water storage through aquifer recharge and recovery so that excess water in the
winter can be stored for summer use.
for industry
- identifying other resource-conserving methods for the production processes
- reusing treated municipal wastewater instead of potable water for process and cooling
- reusing water used in manufacturing and cooling

C.2 - Background of water supply

The concept of water resources is multidimensional. It is not only limited to its physical measure
(hydrological and hydrogeological), the “flows and stocks”, but encompasses other more
qualitative, environmental and socio-economic dimensions.
The water resources of a country are determined by a number of factors, including the amount of
water received from precipitation, inflow and outflow in rivers and the amount lost by evaporation
and transpiration (evaporation of water through plants). The potential for storage in aquifers and
bodies of surface water is important in facilitating the exploitation of this resource by humans.
These factors depend on geography, geology and climate.

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Freshwater resources are continuously replenished by the natural processes of the hydrological
cycle. Approximately 65 % of precipitation falling on land returns to the atmosphere through
evaporation and transpiration; the remainder recharges aquifers, streams and lakes as it flows to the
sea.
The average annual runoff for the member countries of the European Environment Agency (EEA) is
estimated to be about 3100 km3 per year (314 mm per year). This is equivalent to 4500 m3 per
capita per year for a population of 680 millions.

Figure 5: Annual Water availability per capita and country (Eurostat, 2001).

Sustainable use of the freshwater resources can only be assured if the rate of use does not exceed
the rate of renewal. The total abstraction of a country or area must not exceed the net water balance
(precipitation plus inflow minus evaporation and transpiration) and must guarantee a minimum river
flow consistent with the Good Ecological Status (GES) that is supporting the typical biocoenosis of
the water bodies.
Achieving the correct balance between use and renewal requires reliable quantitative assessment of
the water resources and a thorough understanding of the hydrological regime. Available resources
must be managed carefully to ensure that abstraction to satisfy the various demands for water does
not threaten the long-term availability of water. Sustainability also implies management to protect
the quality of the water resources, which may include measures such as preventing contaminants
from entering the water, and maintaining river flows so that any discharges are sufficiently diluted
to prevent adverse effects on water quality and ecological status.
At continental scale, Europe appears to have abundant water resources. However, these resources
are unevenly distributed, both between and within countries. Once population density is taken into
account, the unevenness in the distribution of water resources per inhabitant is striking.

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A total of 12 countries have less than 4000 m3/capita/year, while the Northern European countries
and Bulgaria have the highest water resources per capita (figure 5).
Population density also determines the availability of water per person and widely varies across
Europe, from fewer than 10 inhabitants per km2 in Iceland to over 300 per km2 in the Benelux
countries and San Marino and over 1000 per km2 in Malta.
The total renewable freshwater resource of a country is the total volume of river runoff and
groundwater recharge annually generated by precipitation within the country, plus the total volume
of actual flow of rivers coming from neighbouring territories (Brouwer and Falkenmark, 1989).
This resource is supplemented by water stored in lakes, reservoirs, snow, icecaps and fossil
groundwater.

C.2.1 - River runoff

In a long-term water balance, runoff is the amount of precipitation that does not evaporate, usually
expressed as an equivalent depth of water across the area of the catchment. Stream-flow, in general
terms, is the water within a river channel, usually expressed as a rate of flow passing a point,
typically in m3s-1. A simple link between the two is that runoff can be regarded as stream-flow
divided by catchment area, although in dry areas this does not necessarily hold, because runoff
generated in one part of the catchment may infiltrate before reaching a channel and becoming
stream-flow. Over short durations, the amount of water leaving a catchment outlet is usually
expressed as stream-flow; over durations of a month or more, it is usually expressed as runoff.
Renewable water resources include waters replenished yearly in the process of the annual water
cycle; they are defined as the total volume of river run-off and groundwater recharge generated
annually by precipitation, plus the total volume of actual flow of rivers coming from neighbouring
territories. Thus, river runoff represents renewable water resources and constitutes the dynamic
component of the total water resource (figure 7).
Climatic and physical properties of the catchment, aggravated by human activities, such as river
impoundment and landuse changes, may lead to significant variations in seasonal flow regimes.
In general, trends in hydrological data are consistent with those identified for precipitation: runoff
tends to increase where precipitation has increased and decrease where it has fallen over the past
few years. Variations in flow from year to year have been found to be much more strongly related
to precipitation changes than to temperature changes (e.g. Krasovskaia, 1995; Risbey and
Entekhabi, 1996). There are some more subtle patterns, however. In large parts of Eastern Europe
(Westmacott and Burn, 1997), a major—and unprecedented—shift in streamflow from spring to
winter has been associated not only with a change in precipitation totals but more particularly with a
rise in temperature: precipitation has fallen as rain, rather than snow, and therefore has reached
rivers more rapidly than before
There is also a considerable spatial variation in river flow across Europe. The average annual runoff
in Europe very closely follows the pattern of average annual rainfall. Annual runoff is larger than
3000 mm in western Norway, and decreases to less than 25 mm in southern and central Spain and is
about 100 mm over large part of Western Europe (Europe’s water: an indicator based assessment,
EEA, 2003).

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Figure 6: Long-term average annual runoff (in mm) in the European Union (EEA, 2003).

C.2.2 - Groundwater

Groundwater represents the largest single source of freshwater in the hydrological cycle (about
95 % globally), larger in volume than all water in rivers, lakes and wetlands together. In general,
groundwater is of good quality because of natural purification processes and very little treatment is
needed to make it suitable for human consumption unless in the case of high natural occurrence of
toxic substances (table 1).
Natural underground reservoirs can have an enormous storage capacity, much greater than the
largest man-made reservoirs; they can supply “buffer storage” during periods of drought. In
addition, groundwater provides base flow to surface water systems, feeding them all through the
year. Thus, groundwater quality has a direct impact on the quality of surface waters as well as on
associated aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

Figure 7: Precipitation and groundwater at the

latitude of Switzerland (UNEP, 2004).

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Region (%) Population served (millions)

Asia–Pacific 32 1 000 – 2 000
Europe 75 200 – 500
Central and South America 29 150
USA 51 135
Australia 15 3
Africa NA NA
World - 1 500 – 2 750
Table 1: Estimated percentage of drinking water supply obtained from
groundwater. Source: UNEP, 2004.

Groundwater represents the portion of precipitation that infiltrates into the land surface, entering the
empty spaces between soil particles or fractured rocks; the larger the soil particles, the larger the
empty spaces, and the greater the potential for water infiltration.
Groundwater systems are dynamic. Water is continuously in motion; its velocity is highly variable,
ranging from a few meters per year to several meters per day. Many aquifer systems possess a
natural capacity to attenuate and thereby mitigate the effects of pollution. The soil purifies the
infiltrating water in three different ways. It serves as a physical filter retaining particles like a sieve.
Secondly, pollutants undergo chemical conversion through contact with soil minerals. Furthermore,
the surface layer of the soil supports intense microbial life; bacteria break down certain undesirable
substances, neutralizing them.
Although groundwater is not easily contaminated, once this occurs, it is difficult to remediate.
Therefore, it is important to identify which aquifer systems are most vulnerable to degradation. The
replacement cost of a failing local aquifer will be high and its loss may stress other water resources
serving as substitutes.
Groundwater abstraction
In some regions the extent of groundwater abstraction exceeds the recharge rate, thus leading to
over-exploitation. In Europe, the share of groundwater needed at the country level to meet the total
demand for freshwater ranges from 9 % up to 100 % (compare figure 8). In the majority of
countries, however, total annual groundwater abstraction has been decreasing since 1990. The
vulnerability of an aquifer to overexploitation depends on its type, the climate, the hydrological
conditions, and the uses of water. The rapid expansion in groundwater abstraction over the past 30
to 40 years has supported new agricultural and socio-economic development in regions where
alternative surface water resources are insufficient, uncertain or too costly.
Over-abstraction leads to groundwater depletion, with consequences like landscape desertification,
deterioration of water quality (e.g. saltwater intrusion), loss of habitats (e.g. wetlands), modification
of river/aquifer interactions, and ground subsidence (see chapter I.C.4 and Technical Report on
Groundwater Management in the Mediterranean and the Water Framework Directive).

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

Figure 8: Groundwater resources and abstractions (Eurostat New Cronos, 2002). Data for
groundwater resources are long term annual average; data for groundwater abstractions refer to year
1995 except for Cyprus 1998, Ireland 1994, Netherlands 1996, Portugal 1998, Italy 1985, and
Turkey 2000.
Groundwater and Water Framework Directive
Due to the complexity in addressing groundwater, particularly when assessing its status, article 17
of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) demands the creation of a so-called
groundwater daughter directive to lay down specific measures for groundwater in order to prevent
and control pollution and to achieve good chemical status of groundwater. It sets out criteria for
assessing the chemical status and for identifying and reversing trends in pollution of groundwater
bodies. The daughter directive must also provide controls on indirect discharges to groundwater that
would be lost after the withdrawal of the current directive on the protection of groundwater of 1979
(Dir. 80/68/CEE) in 2013.
Currently, Working Group C of the WFD Common Implementation Strategy (WFD-CIS WG-C) is
working on the clarification of groundwater issues that are covered by the WFD such as
groundwater status assessment, groundwater-surface water interaction, overpumping and
salinization. In its second mandate, WG-C is preparing technical guidance documents on some
specific themes. At the moment three drafting groups are active: WG1 is defining general
guidelines for the qualitative and quantitative monitoring so that the comparability of the results is
ensured among Member States, WG2 is looking at the problems connected to the protected areas,
and WG3 is producing a document to clarify issues about the prevention and limitation of pollutant
inputs into groundwater.
Aquifer recharge
Natural aquifer recharge (from rain or surface water infiltration) is vital in order to maintain the
groundwater and to replenish the discharges from the aquifer with a good quality water resource,
but in many cases is quite impossible to grant a sustainable groundwater level only considering
natural recharge. In many areas of the world, aquifers that supply drinking-water are being used
faster than they recharge. Not only does this represent a water supply problem, it may also have
serious health implications. Moreover, in coastal areas, aquifers containing potable water can
become contaminated with saline water if water is withdrawn faster than it can naturally be
replaced. The increasing salinity makes the water unfit for drinking and often also renders it unfit
for irrigation. To remedy these problems, some authorities have chosen to recharge aquifers
artificially with treated wastewater, using either infiltration or injection. Aquifers may also be
passively recharged (intentionally or unintentionally) by septic tanks, wastewater applied to
irrigation and other means. Artificial recharge is the planned, human activity of augmenting the
amount of groundwater available through works designed to increase the natural replenishment or

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percolation of surface waters into the groundwater aquifers, resulting in a corresponding increase in
the amount of groundwater available for abstraction.

C.2.3 - Reservoir stocks

The use of storage reservoirs helps to overcome the uneven distribution of natural water resources.
Runoff in the wet season can be held back and used in the dry season (seasonal regulation), and
water available in wet years can be stored and used in dry years (interannual regulation). The
beneficial aspects of reservoirs in safeguarding water resources and supplies have to be balanced
against the significant impacts that their construction and subsequent operations have on natural
landscapes and ecosystems.
The predominant functions of reservoirs in Europe are storage for hydroelectric power production,
public water supply, and irrigation. Water is not always available to meet demands. In particular,
water for urban use must be guaranteed and irrigation demands often need to be met during the dry
season, when river discharges are at their annual lowest level. Water storage by reservoirs helps to
overcome this temporal unavailability of freshwater resources. In Europe, approximately 13 % of
mean annual runoff is stored by dams. It represents a significant increase in the standing stock of
natural river water, with residence times in individual reservoirs of less than one day to several
years.
The countries with the highest percentage of stored water volume in relation to their annual
renewable freshwater resources (over 20 %) are Turkey, Spain, and Cyprus. These countries also
use the highest percentage of their resources for irrigation. This activity demands the largest water
volumes in the driest seasons, requiring winter storage. Spain and Cyprus are considered to be water
stressed, whilst Turkey has low water stress (see figure 4, Water Exploitation Index). In many
countries such as Austria, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden
the majority of large reservoirs are used for hydropower production. In particular, the primary
purpose of major reservoirs in Sweden and Norway is almost exclusively for hydroelectricity (EEA,
1999).

C.2.4 - Non-conventional resources

With increasing pressure on natural freshwater in parts of the world, other sources of water are
growing in importance. These non-conventional sources of water represent complementary supply
sources that may be substantial in regions affected by extreme scarcity of renewable water
resources. Such sources are accounted for separately from natural renewable water resources. They
include:
- the production of freshwater by desalinization of brackish or saltwater (mostly for domestic
purposes),
- the reuse of urban or industrial wastewaters (with or without treatment), which increases the
overall efficiency of use of water (extracted from primary sources), mostly in agriculture but
increasingly also in industrial and domestic sectors. This category also includes agricultural
drainage water.
Desalinization
Initially sea-water desalinization technologies were based on distillation; hence energy consumption
was very high. The development of more efficient technologies (such as inverse osmosis) has
reduced the cost of desalinization considerably (below 1 €/m3). However, this technique still tends
to be considerably more expensive than supply from conventional sources (surface water and
groundwater). Desalinization of sea water or brackish groundwater is therefore mainly applied in
places where no other sources are available. Sea-water desalinization in Spain accounts for about
0.22 km3/year. Although this volume is small in comparison to total renewable water resources in
the country (111 km3/year), it represents a significant share of resources in the areas where this

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technology is applied (mainly the Canary and Balearic Islands). In Greece, five desalinization plants
are in operation, all of them on islands.
Desalinization can produce the degradation of coastal habitats like Posidonia sea-grass if the
concentrated salt is not released adequately.
Water reuse
Water reuse is the use of wastewater or reclaimed water from one application such as municipal
wastewater treatment for another application such as landscape watering. The reused water must be
employed for a beneficial purpose and in accordance with applicable rules (such as local ordinances
governing water reuse). Factors that should be considered in an industrial water reuse programme
include (Brown and Caldwell, 1990):
- identification of water reuse opportunities,
- determination of the minimum water quality needed for the given use,
- identification of wastewater sources that satisfy the water quality requirements,
- determination of how the water can be transported to the new use.

In terms of quantitative water resources management, the reuse of wastewater or reclaimed water is
beneficial because it reduces the demand for surface and groundwater. The greatest benefit of
establishing water reuse programmes might be their contribution in delaying or eliminating the need
to increase potable water supply and the capacity of water treatment facilities, and in reducing the
costs of long sea outfall pipes to dispose of wastewater.
Main applications of this technique can be found for irrigation in agriculture, parks, recreational
areas, golf courses, etc. Usually, simplified water treatment is carried out, in order to guarantee
minimum quality standards of the water to be reused. Few studies and data about the reuse of
wastewater are available, and further research is needed to assess the long-term effects of irrigation
with treated wastewater on soils and agriculture.
In France, wastewater reuse has become a part of regional water resources management policies. It
is practised mostly in the southern part of the country and in coastal areas, compensating local water
deficiencies. In Portugal, it is estimated that the volume of treated wastewater is around 10 % of the
water demand for irrigation in dry years, and that between 35’000 ha and 100’000 ha could be
irrigated with treated wastewater. In Spain, the total volume of wastewater reclaimed amounts to
0.23 km3/year, being used mainly for irrigation in agriculture (89 %), recreational areas and golf
courses (6 %), municipal use (2 %), environmental uses (2 %), and industry (1 %).
Water recycling
Reuse of water for the same application for which it was originally used. Recycled water might
require treatment before it can be used again.
Rainwater harvesting
For centuries, people have relied on rainwater harvesting to supply water for household, landscape,
livestock, and agricultural uses. Before large centralized water supply systems were developed,
rainwater was collected from roofs and stored on site in tanks known as cisterns. A renewed interest
in this approach has emerged due to the escalating environmental and economic costs of providing
water by centralized water systems or by well drilling, and the potential cost and energy savings
associated to rainwater collection systems which are a source of water.

C.3 - Background of water demand

Various concepts are used to describe the diverse aspects of water use. Water abstraction is the
quantity of water physically removed from its natural source. Water supply refers to the share of
abstraction which is supplied to users (excluding losses in storage, conveyance and distribution),
and water consumption means the share of supply which in terms of water balance is actually used
(as evaporation) whilst the remainder is reintroduced into the source of abstraction.

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The term “water demand” is defined as the volume of water requested by users to satisfy their
needs. In a simplified way, it is often considered equal to water abstraction, although conceptually
the two terms do not have the same meaning. Water demand estimations should be clearly
associated to different prices of water.

C.3.1 - Agricultural water use

Over the past decades the trend in agricultural water use has, in general, been upwards, due to
increasing use of water for irrigation. However, during recent years in several countries, the rate of
growth has slowed down. The total water abstraction for irrigation in Europe is about 105’068
Hm3/year (Hm3 = cubic hectometre = 1 million cubic metres). The mean water allocation for
agriculture decreased from 5499 to 5170 m3/ha/year between 1990 and 2001.
Reforms of Common Agricultural Policy will lead to changes in types of crop being cultivated, the
area irrigated, and the amount of water used. Two opposing trends can be distinguished. On the one
hand, if production is reduced, the demand for production inputs such as water is bound to diminish.
On the other hand, there might be a switch towards more profitable crops, which at least in southern
Europe frequently require irrigation.

C.3.2 - Domestic use

The total water use for urban purposes in Europe is 53’294 Hm3/year which amounts to 18 % of
total abstraction and to 27 % of its consumptive uses. Between 1990 and 2001, urban use per capita
has decreased and many changes have occurred, influencing the patterns of urban water use :
increasing urbanization, changes of population habits, use of more efficient technologies and water
saving devices, alternative sources of water (desalinization, indirect and direct wastewater reuse),
increasing metering, and use of economic instruments such as water charges and tariffs. Connection
of population to water supply systems has also increased, especially in Mediterranean countries.
The water required for drinking and other domestic purposes is a significant proportion of the total
water demand. The proportion of water for abstracted urban use ranges from about 6.5 % in
Germany to more than 50 % in United Kingdom.
Population distribution and density are key factors influencing the availability of water resources.
Increased urbanization concentrates water demand and can lead to the overexploitation of local
water resources. Higher standards of living are changing water demand patterns. This is mainly
reflected in increased domestic water use, especially for personal hygiene. Most of the European
population has indoor toilets, showers and/or baths for daily use. Most of the water use in
households is for toilet flushing (33 %), bathing and showering (20 % - 32 %), and for washing
machines and dishwashers (15 %). The proportion of water used for cooking and drinking (3 %) is
minimal compared to the other uses.

C.3.3 - Industrial water use

The total water use for industry in Europe is 34’194 Hm3/year which amounts for 18 % of its
consumptive uses. Between 1990 and 2001, the industrial use has decreased consistently.
Over the period considered, different changes have occurred and have influenced the industrial
water use: decline of industrial production, use of more efficient technologies with lower water
requirements and use of economic instruments (charges on abstractions and effluents).
The biggest industrial water users are the chemical industry, the steel, iron and metallurgy
industries, and the pulp and paper industry, although in most European countries industrial
abstractions have been declining since 1980. In Western Europe this is due, primarily, to economic
restructuring with closures in water-using industries such as textiles and steel, and a move towards
less water-intensive industries. Technological improvements in water-using equipment and

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increased recycling and re-use have also contributed to the decline. In Eastern Europe, abstractions
seem to have diminished due to the serious decline in industrial activity across the whole sector.
Generally, pricing mechanisms have been used more intensively to encourage water use efficiencies
in the industrial sector than in the household and agricultural sectors, as companies will adopt
water-saving technologies faster, if costs can be reduced. Charges for the discharge of contaminated
water into the sewerage network are also an important incentive for industries in order to improve
process technologies and to reduce the amount of water used and discharged.

C.3.4 - Energy water use

Water abstracted for energy production is considered as a non-consumptive use and accounts for
about 30 % of all the uses in Europe. Western European and Accession Countries are the largest
users of water for energy production, in particular Belgium, Germany and Estonia where more than
half of the abstracted water is used for energy production.
In general, the quantities of water abstracted for cooling by far excess those used by the rest of
industry. However, cooling water is generally returned to the water cycle unchanged, except with an
increase of temperature and some possible contamination by biocides.

C.3.5 - Tourism

In the Mediterranean region, about 135 million tourists (international and domestic) stayed along
the coasts in 1990, representing more than half the total tourism in all Mediterranean countries and
doubling the coastal population.
Tourism places a wide range of pressures on local environment. The impact on water quantity (total
and peak) depends on water availability in relation to the particular timing and location of the water
demand from tourism and on the capability of the water supply system to meet peak demands.
The intensity of the natural resources used by tourism can conflict with other needs, especially in
regions where water resources are scarce in summer, and with other sectors of economic
development such as agriculture and forestry. Uncontrolled tourism development, typically like in
the past, has led to a degradation of the quality of the environment, particularly in coastal and
mountainous zones.
Tourist water use is generally higher than water use by residents. A tourist consumes about 300 l/
day; European household consumption is about 150 - 200 l/day. In addition, recreational activities
such as swimming pools, golf and aquatic sports contribute to the pressure on water resources
(focus available in Appendix 1.3).

C.3.6 - Network leakages

The reduction of leakage (both real and apparent) is an essential measure for water resources
conservation and for the achievement of a good water balance at river basin scale.
Water losses due to network leakage include technical and economical aspects, and the importance
of this issue is shared at international level. Accordingly, it is useful to agree upon a common
terminology. The following definitions have been stated by the International Water Association
(IWA Bluepages, 2000):
Water Losses
Water losses of a system are calculated as the difference between the system input volume and the
authorised consumption. Water losses can be considered as a total volume for the whole system, or
for partial systems such as raw water mains, transmission, or distribution. In each case the
components of the calculation would be adjusted accordingly. Water losses consist of real and
apparent losses.

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

Real Losses
Real losses are physical water losses from the pressurised system, up to the point of customer
metering. The volume lost through all types of leaks, bursts, and overflows depends on frequencies,
flow rates, and average durations of individual leaks.
Apparent Losses
Apparent losses consist of unauthorised consumption (theft or illegal use), and all types of
inaccuracies associated with production metering and customer metering. Under-registration of
production meters and over-registration of customer meters lead to under-estimation of real losses.
Over-registration of production meters and under-registration of customer meters lead to over-
estimation of real losses.
Non-revenue Water
Non-revenue water is the difference between the system input volume and billed authorised
consumption.

Water leakage includes:

• losses due to pipeline breakage or damages,
• losses due to joints damages, especially in old and extended networks,
• losses in users connections,
• losses and surmounting in water reservoirs.

The main leakage indicators internationally used are:

• % of input volume: non-revenue water divided for the system input volume, multiplied by 100,
• specific water loss (m3/day/km): the leakage volume divided by the length of mains and by the
reference time,
• losses for number of service connection, referred to a specific reference time (day, hour, etc).

The IWA proposes also a new leakage indicator: the Infrastructure Leakage Index (ILI). This index
can be used in order to provide additional insight into technical comparisons, as it takes into
account many of the key influences on real losses (number of service connection, length of service
connections, etc.) and separates aspects of infrastructure management from aspects of pressure
management.

C.4 - Impact and assessment of imbalances

Driving Forces
Water quality and quantity are threatened by human activities that cause pressures on the
environment, including urbanization, tourism, industry and agriculture (table 2).

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

Driving Forces Impact

Increasing urban population causes substantial pressures on surface and groundwater.
More than two-thirds of Europe’s population lives in urban areas and the rate of
Urbanization
urbanization is, in particular, increasing in Central and Eastern Europe, while in
Western Europe it has stabilized.
Industrial pressures involve: high water demand for cooling and cleaning purposes;
pollution with potentially toxic inorganic and organic substances (e.g. organic matter,
metals, chlorinated hydrocarbons, nutrients…); disposal or dumping of sludge and
Industry
waste, and inadequate containment of old industrial sites; accidents during production
and transport. Further pollution arises from emissions to air, mainly from the
combustion of fossil fuels, which initiate a process of acidification.
Tourism causes very high pressures especially on groundwater, because of the
additional water demand during seasons when the groundwater situation may already
Tourism
be rather critical. Waste and sewage from this sector represent another potential source
of water pollution.
Agriculture causes high pressure and can produce its depletion due to over-abstraction.
The legacy of the agricultural intensification of the post-war years is still present, and
Agriculture
it is widely predicted that groundwater will continue to be contaminated with nitrate
for several decades.
Table 2: Driving forces and impacts (UNEP - Freshwater in Europe, 2004).

Over-exploitation effects
- Groundwater quality:
Continuous groundwater over-exploitation can cause isolated or widespread groundwater
quality problems. Over-abstraction causes a decrease in groundwater level which can
influence the movement of water within an aquifer. Significant draw-downs can cause
serious quality problems. One of these changes is displacement of the freshwater/saltwater
interface, causing active saltwater intrusion.
- Saltwater intrusion:
Large areas of the Mediterranean coastline in Italy, Spain, and Turkey have been affected
by saltwater intrusion. The main cause is groundwater over-abstraction for public water
supply, followed by agricultural water demand and tourism-related abstractions. Irrigation is
the main cause of groundwater overexploitation in agricultural areas. An example is the
Greek Argolid plain of eastern Peloponnesus, where it is common to find boreholes 400 m
deep contaminated by salt water intrusion.
- River-aquifer interactions:
Aquifers can exert a strong influence on river flows. In summer, many rivers are dependent
on the groundwater base flow contribution for their minimum flow. Lower groundwater
levels due to over-exploitation may, therefore, endanger river dependent ecological and
economic functions, including surface water abstractions, dilution of effluents, navigation
and hydropower generation.
- Wetlands:
Water abstraction in areas near wetlands can be a serious problem, as groundwater pumping
usually lowers the groundwater table, causing an extended, deeper unsaturated zone. This
can severely damage wetland ecosystems which are very sensitive to minor changes in water
level.
- Ground subsidence:

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

Heavy draw-down has been identified as the cause of ground subsidence or soil compaction
phenomena in some parts of Europe, notably along the Veneto and Emilia-Romagna coasts,
the Po delta and particularly in Venice, Bologna and Ravenna in Italy.

Pollution effects on groundwater

Pollution of a water body occurs when an impurity (micro-organism or chemical) is introduced by
or as a result of human activities, creating an actual or potential danger to human health or the
environment when present at high concentrations. Europe’s groundwater is polluted in several
ways: nitrates, pesticides, hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons, sulphate, phosphate and
bacteria. Some of the most serious problems are caused by nitrates and pesticides (figures 9 and 10).
As groundwater moves slowly through the ground, the impact of human activities can last for a
relatively long time. This makes pollution prevention very important for addressing groundwater
issues.

Figure 9: Nitrate in Groundwater Bodies (FAOSTAT – 2003).

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

Figure 10: Number of registered active pesticide ingredients (EEA – 2000).

APPENDIX 1

• PROJECT BOX
• NATURAL FACTORS CAUSING DROUGHT
• INDEXES
• WATER USE BY SECTOR IN EUROPE

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

II - DROUGHT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

A - PREAMBLE

Drought is a naturally occurring phenomenon and a normal part of variability of the usual
meteorological conditions, according to the climate characteristics. As a natural hazard, drought
imposes differential vulnerability on the different countries depending on their degree of exposure
to aridity and their drought management policies. The compounded effect of hazard and
vulnerability generally represents the risk associated to drought events. Exposure to drought risk
varies from country to country.
It is very important to discern among transitory periods of water deficiency, a cause of exceptional
drought, and long term imbalances available resources/demands, as reflected in figure 11.

Figure 11 : Permanent or temporary deficit

When we say that a Water Resources Management System (WRMS) is able to meet a set of
demands according to defined reliability criteria, we are implicitly accepting a certain probability of
failure to satisfy fully the total water supply that is theoretically required.
The margin of accepted failure is limited by guarantee criteria. When it happens, it is necessary to
carry out transitory measures as defined in drought management plans. In other cases, the WRMS
cannot be considered as sufficient and produces a permanent deficit. Hence it is necessary to
balance the offer of available resources and water demands on a medium- or long-term basis.
Nevertheless, nothing can be done to reduce the recurrence of climatological drought events.
Therefore, drought management should not be regarded as managing a temporary crisis. It should
rather be seen as a risk management process that places emphasis on monitoring and managing
emerging stress conditions and other hazards associated to climate variability in the region under

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consideration. Furthermore, drought management in terms of risk management rather than crisis
management is now the agreed and practised form of drought management.
An important feature of drought as a natural hazard is that it is a complex, slow-onset phenomenon
that is very difficult to predict and mainly only monitored. Weather forecasting does not mean
automatically drought prediction, even in the case of meteorological drought, as the lead-time of a
few days of standard weather forecasts is too short. While scientific advances such as seasonal
climate prediction techniques have provided new opportunities in the tropical regions, the
understanding in temperate regions for climate prediction remains at a lower level. However, latest
developments in monthly and seasonal forecasting might allow for drought forecasting in the near
future (compare chapter II.C). Our predictive capacity for agricultural, hydrological, and socio-
economic droughts is limited too. However, as soil and groundwater systems show a slower
response and temporal variability as compared to the highly fluctuating atmosphere, the prediction
of changes should be generally less difficult. In any case one thing is certain: Drought is a recurring
phenomenon that has strongly influenced environment, economy, and culture over the last
millennium, especially in the Mediterranean countries.
Analysis of drought management policies in some countries today indicates that decision-makers
mainly react to drought episodes through a crisis-management approach by declaring a national or
regional drought emergency programme to alleviate drought impacts, rather than on developing
comprehensive, long-term drought preparedness policies and plans of actions that may significantly
reduce the risks and vulnerabilities to extreme weather events. Drought planning nowadays moves
towards risk management rather than crisis management. Basic and applied references to drought
can be found in Dracup et al. (1980), USACE (1994), National Drought Mitigation Center
(http://drought.unl.edu), Wilhite (1983, 1991a and 1991b, 1993a, 1993b and 1993c, 1996), Wilhite
et al. (1985, 1986, 1987, 1994a, 1994b), Tallaksen et al. (2004), EurAqua (2004).
Specific key issues such as the use of modelling tools for water resources management, rainfall
harvesting, saline intrusions, increase of supply, reduction of demand, enforcement of metering,
measures for impact mitigation, along with issues of integrated management methodologies and
tools at catchment scale, as well as saline water intrusion prevention and mitigation have to be
considered.
A drought plan representing the implementation of risk management will provide an action plan that
provides a dynamic framework for an ongoing set of actions to be prepared for drought and to
effectively respond to it. It typically includes periodic reviews of achievements and priorities,
readjustment of goals, means and resources, strengthened institutional arrangements, and planning
and policy making mechanisms for drought mitigation.
Effective information and early warning systems are the foundation of preparedness aspects in
effective drought policies and plans, as well as effective network and coordination between central,
regional and local levels.
In addition to an effective early warning system, the drought management strategy should include
sufficient capacity for contingency planning before the onset of drought, and appropriate policies to
reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to drought.
These are the basic elements of a drought preparedness and risk management strategies that need
urgent development. Working towards a long-term drought management strategy, European Union
countries need to establish the institutional capacity to assess the frequency, severity, and
localisation of droughts and their various effects and impacts on crops, livestock, environment, and
the wellbeing of drought-affected population.
Although drought is a complex phenomenon that involves social, economic and environmental
aspects, this chapter is focused in drought management, specially in the context of water resources
planning. The chapter deals with the following items :
• Regional characterization of drought. Drought is an anomaly or aberration regarding the
habitual rainfall pattern in a certain region. It is, therefore, essential to characterize, in each
geographical region, the drought pattern onset and the differences between normality and/or

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abnormality. The analysis of historical droughts and their management practices can provide
substantial information for this characterization as well as a valuable source of experience
about the effectiveness of the measures applied for their mitigation.
• Drought mitigation approaches and long-term performance strategies to reduce the
vulnerability of water resources systems to droughts. These performances must be
integrated in the hydrological planning process. In this framework, an anticipated
elaboration of Drought Management Plans is only a part of the planning process.
• The WFD as a useful instrument to drive the drought situations appropriately. The
River Basin Management Plans (RBMP), through their programs of specific measures, can
facilitate their operative development. The planning of long-term measures guided to reduce
the vulnerability to droughts should be integrated in the RBMP.
• Guidelines on the content and development of Drought Management Plans. Within this
plans, the drought monitoring networks constitute an essential element of the process.
• Drought Management Plans as part of the specific measures programs. This approach
can contribute to mitigate drought effects respecting WFD constraints. “Force majeure”
situations should be characterized by the appropriate system of indicators, as integral part of
Drought Management Plans.
• Drought management experiences in EU member countries and in non EU
Mediterranean countries. A brief summary of remarkable examples of mitigation
measures facing drought is given.

B - REGIONAL DROUGHT CHARACTERIZATION

Droughts are typically characterized by their duration, magnitude and intensity. They can be
determined from the historical record alone by using non-parametric methods but, because the
number of drought events that can be drawn from the historical sample is generally small, the
"historical" drought characteristics have a large degree of uncertainty.
Other alternatives for finding drought characteristics include the application of stochastic models
that can represent the underlying hydrologic quantities such as precipitation and streamflows,
simulating long records of such hydrologic variables, and then deriving droughts characteristics
from the simulated samples. Yet another approach may be based on modelling the underlying
hydrologic quantities in such a way that drought characterization can be made analytically.
In addition, an important subject is the recurrence of drought events. While recurrence studies of
other types of extreme events such as floods have given fruitful results, this is not the case with the
recurrence characteristics of drought events, because the hypothesis of independence is not
completed among episodes. Furthermore, most advances on drought characterization have been
made for single site or for processes defined at a single point or averaged over an area, however a
more complete drought characterization should involve both temporal and spatial variability of the
hydrologic processes of concern.

B.1 - Historical droughts characterization

The usual way to try to understand drought patterns is to study the past documented history of
events in the same region. To make this in a systematic and rigorous way, objective tools of
comparison should be applied : drought indices that attempt to comprise the main drought features
in order to facilitate comparisons. Numerous indices are found in the literature based on different
drought features. Some of them have been described in the preceding chapter (see chapter I.B.4).
Many of them were created for particular places and specific objectives, and therefore not suitable
to generalize their results. However, there have been attempts to develop a general index, which
would provide full characterization of drought events.

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

All of the indices (see Appendix 1.B.3 and 2.B.1) may provide a partial description of drought, but
none of them define it completely. Attempts to correlate an indicator with a particular level of
drought severity observed in a region have resulted in several multiple-parameter indicators. Some
proposed composite indicators are the method of truncation (Chang and Kleopa, 1991), the Water
Availability Index (Davis and Holler, 1987), and the Surface Water Supply Index (Dezman et al.,
1982).
Each of them has particular advantages and disadvantages. No index includes a full representation
of droughts in a single value, useful for all general application. The fact that droughts have a
random nature prescribes the statistical theory for the foundation of a complete and generic index,
which would meet this goal.
Furthermore, it is necessary to select or create the appropriate indicators adapted to specific regional
circumstances in order to find out what sort of meteorological or hydrological patterns could be
considered as a temporary aberration (drought) in a region, because usually they are different
depending on the affected region. Developing a drought climatology analysis of a region provides a
greater understanding of its characteristics and the probability of recurrence at various severity
levels. Information of this type is extremely beneficial in the development of response and
mitigation strategies and preparedness plans.
The historical context of droughts must be taken into account, considering the “no-repeatability” of
the crisis phenomena connected to low water availability. Excluding the macroscopic low water
availability situations, which result critical in any time and spatial context, a drought crisis is
revealed by a socio-economical “perception”, often limited to a specific user or to a specific river
basin area. Furthermore drought crisis may have different evolutions in the time scale.
Socio-economical context is a dynamic component which can modify its own sensitiveness and its
own perception of water availability reduction ; this sensitiveness shall be considered in the
definition of trigger value.
The influence of the socio-economical and historical context determines two different
consequences. The first one is that crisis episodes do not constitute an homogeneous stochastically
independent sample ; this utilization can be appropriate only when events are temporally close and
consequently related to the same historical context. Anyway a statistical analysis on rare extreme
events is not significative. The second consequence is that the analysis of consequences of water
scarcity on users needs a reference condition related to socio-economical factors influencing water
demand.
Therefore, the vulnerability of a water supply system related to critical drought events can be
evaluated through simulation models able to reproduce different crisis scenarios. These scenarios,
which should be statistically characterized, are a fundamental basis for the reference system testing.
This procedure will allow the simulation of the effects of drought events on users, enabling the
choice of the most effective mitigation measures, through the use of technical – economical criteria
and priority services guarantee criteria. The mitigation measures can be structural measures, in
order to face high frequency crisis, or contingency measures, in order to face the rarest scenarios
which cannot justify long-term financial investments.

B.2 - Historical drought analysis : What happened? What has been done?

Once the basic characteristics of meteorological and hydrological droughts of the basin or region
have been established, effectiveness of management rules adopted in water resources systems must
be audited (e.g. resources, consumptions and demands, infrastructures, adopted decisions) for past
periods of drought, in order to assess the vulnerability of the water resources system, the impact of
the drought, the effectiveness of adopted measures, as well as to identify possible future mitigation
measures. In particular, the most recent severe drought with territorial- wide dimension must be
analyzed. It is necessary to respond to the following questions at basin level :
- quantitative and qualitative evolution of resources

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Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

- evolution of consumptions and demands

- management rules adopted in the different exploitation systems
- degree of demand satisfaction for different uses and supply deficit
- evolution of reserves in surface and groundwater systems
- measures adopted to mitigate the effects of drought and assessment of their effects
- flows and environmental volumes reserved in hydrological planning and the degree of
compliance in historical droughts
- impacts on water quality, environment and economy

B.3 - Drought diagnosis : What have we learnt?

In order to determine what we have learned during past severe drought events, a synthesis of the
most outstanding conclusions is needed in order to establish the vulnerability of the water resources
systems to droughts. This diagnosis will have to include the following topics: recurrence and
severity of droughts, effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands, consequences on
water status, fragility of water resources systems, identification of problematic water supplies,
identification of mitigation measures adopted and their effects on demand management,
identification of developed infrastructures for water resources increase, substitution to be activated
under drought conditions, proposals to be developed in short term, identification of sensitive units
of agricultural demand, and inventory of measures adopted for water conservation and their effects.
One of the most valuable sources of information about how to prepare for drought is the experience
of those who have suffered a severe drought. The full value of these experiences, though, can be
realized only if the lessons are recorded, critically analyzed, and communicated to others who can
use the information. The reading of many drought experiences in different countries carries us to the
following conclusions :
• The complexity of the impacts of a sustained drought demands more sophisticated planning;
severe drought can change longstanding relationships and balances of power in the
competition for water ; drought can force water supply solutions on a community that people
would not have accepted otherwise.
• The success of drought response plans should be measured in terms of minimization and
equitable redistribution of the impacts, but there is a lot to learn about the best ways of
achieving this goal.
• Severe droughts can reveal inadequacies in the existing roles and performance of water
institutions, causing significant institutional and legal changes. Increases in water prices
should precede or accompany water restriction measures. Mass media can play a positive
role in drought response, but only if water managers help design the message. Water banks
could be an effective way of reallocating restricted water supplies.
• Groundwater continues to be the most effective strategic weapon against drought. During
droughts, aquifers play an important role in meeting water demand, not only in terms of
quality and quantity, but also in relation to space and time.
• The conjunctive use of surface waters and groundwater presents opportunities to use the
natural buffering capacity of aquifers in dry periods, and to ensure recharge when water is
abundantly available.
• Non-conventional resources, such as desalinization and treated wastewater reuse are
additional alternatives with increasing potential to face drought. Water quality suffers during
drought because low flows affect the ability to dilute effluents from wastewater treatment
plants and sustain the aquatic ecosystem.

One of the fundamental advantages of water reuse is the fact that, in many cases, the resource
employed is in the vicinity of its prospective new use, i.e. urban agglomerations and industrial sites.
The treated water increases the fresh water quantity available for non potable applications and has

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been proven to be safe as long as appropriate water quality and well proven water management
practice are adopted. The limiting factor for water reuse can be the quality of the reuse water and
potential hazards for secondary users in a similar way to using river water or other non potable
sources
The way to mitigate the adverse social, environmental, and economic impacts of a sustained
drought is to ensure that a variety of management measures has been scheduled in advance. Early
drought response actions and proper timing of tactical measures are essential in the short-term
management of droughts.
It is necessary to take into account the public awareness and social perception of the shortage and to
educate users to responsible behaviours towards water conservation. Governments and public
authorities should take advantage of the abilities of the civil society to organize itself in order to
face hardship.

C - EARLY WARNING : FORECASTING AND MONITORING SYSTEMS

A critical component within drought management is the continuous observation and evaluation of
the development of a drought event. In fact, in order to detect the onset of a drought, crucial
variables of the region’s water balance must be permanently monitored, not only within a drought
situation. In chapter I part B.1, the various facets and definitions of droughts have been introduced ;
accordingly, meteorological parameters such as precipitation, air temperature and humidity,
hydrological data such as water levels of lakes, reservoirs and groundwater, river discharge, but also
information on the spatio-temporal development of the water demand must be continuously
observed, collected and evaluated. The derivation of drought-relevant parameters, indices and
indicators as shown in chapter I part B.3 from routinely collected data, and their comparison with
past and expected values will allow a timely recognition of evolving water deficits, thus detecting
the onset of a drought situation at an early stage of the event.
In addition to the monitoring of the current state, the exploitation of meteorological forecast
products that become increasingly available in an operational mode opens the door to drought event
forecasting and alerting, before the drought situation shows its first measurable impact. The
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), but also several national
meteorological services, are developing a suite of forecast products that will be of value for drought
forecasting. As an immanent feature of meteorological forecasting, the uncertainty of such forecast
products has to be taken into account. In order to derive information on the uncertainty, the current
state-of-art ensemble forecasts comprise several (usually around 50) single forecasts. These
forecasts start from a similar basis, but have slightly perturbed initial conditions, resulting in a
variety of forecasting results. These results are equally valid and can be analyzed in a post-
processing by statistical and probabilistic methods.
Besides monitoring and forecasting systems, simulation tools such as regional water balance models
are very useful for drought management. Using collected data to define their initial state and
meteorological forecasts to force the future development, various options of drought management
measures can be examined and evaluated before actually being applied. Although models will
always reflect only a limited portion of the entire natural and anthropogenic system of the water
cycle, they can show the impact of single drought management measures under consideration and
reveal unexpected consequences before they occur in reality.
Thus a monitoring and early-warning system will enable planners, water and natural resource
managers, and other decision makers to make more informed and timely decisions. The relatively
small investment required to develop and maintain such a system is justified given the large benefits
that would accrue through a reduction of impacts associated to droughts events.
As the onset of drought is gradual, so should be the actions taken to face it. But this can only be
achieved if a potential drought situation is regularly monitored through indices and indicators that
have been established as part of the planning process. The monitoring and early-warning system

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allows decision-makers to follow the development of drought before it becomes evident, to make
the right decision regarding its onset and the type of mitigation measures to be launched. This is
accomplished by linking the monitoring system to decision-making, through pre-established
linkages between different levels of respective drought indices that trigger pre-defined drought
mitigation measures.
Finally, monitoring mechanisms must be used to decide, if the drought response plan is having its
intended effect. Monitoring also provides the required information needed to evaluate the
performance of the drought management plan in alleviating the effects of drought. Such evaluation
is normally performed as an ex-post analysis of every drought event in order to assess the
achievements of the drought plan and to learn from the experience by recommending the necessary
corrections for future plans.

D - INDICATORS AND WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE

Article 4.6 (WFD) points out specific events including droughts and the need for monitoring and
forecasting : “a temporary deterioration in the status of water bodies shall not be in breach of the
requirements of the directive if it is the result of circumstances of natural cause or force majeure
which are exceptional or could not reasonably have been foreseen, in particular extreme floods and
prolonged droughts, or the result of circumstances due to accidents which could not reasonably
have been foreseen, (…) when all of the conditions established in WFD have been met”.
The conditions under which circumstances that are exceptional or that could not reasonably have
been foreseen may be declared, including the adoption of the appropriate indicators, are stated in
the river basin management plan (see chapter II part F.3).

E - DROUGHT AWARENESS, PREPAREDNESS AND PROACTIVE MANAGEMENT.

LONG-TERM DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS POLICIES

It is essential that people recognize drought as part of their environment. Drought must be
considered as a natural part of a highly variable climate. Communities must be aware of being at
risk. To be aware of a risk means to have recognized it, to know about it, not to forget or to repress
it and to take it into account appropriately when acting. If there is no hazard awareness, even
incentives will not be of any help. If persons concerned have not yet experienced severe drought
periods, knowledge about the risk must be passed on with the help of information and education.
During the past decade in Europe, widespread and severe drought has resulted in an increased
awareness of the nations continuing vulnerability to this creeping natural hazard. This experience
has resulted in numerous initiatives by governments to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of
response efforts. Although some progress has been made, much remains to be done. In most
countries, governments continue to deal with drought in a reactive, rather than proactive, mode.
The demand for European water resources increased from 100 km3/year in 1950 to 660 km3/year by
the end of the 20th century. As the pressure on water resources continues to grow, Europe is
becoming increasingly vulnerable to the effects of droughts.
The growing number of regions, watersheds or municipalities with drought plans in European
Union is a positive sign that more emphasis is now being placed on drought preparedness, although
most public response continues to stress emergency assistance. Many countries have developed and
implemented a wide range of mitigation measures, but the shift from crisis management to risk
management continues to be a difficult transition.
For this transition to be successful, the deficiencies of previous drought response attempts must be
addressed and analyzed in a systematic way. Developing and implementing an integrated drought
policy and plan would represent an important first step. This policy should promote the concept of
risk management, although it cannot ignore the need for government assistance during extended
periods of severe drought. However, this assistance must be consistent with national policy.

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The policy should promote self-reliance while at the same time protecting the natural and
agricultural resource base. There is also a need to coordinate drought-related activities (i.e.
forecasting, monitoring, impact assessment, response and recovery, planning). This policy should
also incorporate incentives for all drought-prone regions to develop plans that promote a more
proactive, anticipatory approach to drought management. Lessons learned from previous drought
response attempts need to be documented, evaluated and shared with all levels of government
through post-drought audits.
Awareness of the necessity to move to a more proactive approach in drought management is
growing, but the capacity to do so remains low. Some countries are in the need to establish
programmes aimed for developing and implementing strategic water resources management plans
that would make them less vulnerable to future droughts.
From the water resources perspective, a proactive approach to drought is equivalent to strategic
planning of water resources management for drought preparation and mitigation. Such planning
consists in two categories of measures, both planned in advance :
• Long-term actions, oriented to reduce the vulnerability of water supply systems to drought,
i.e. to improve the reliability of each system to meet future demands under drought
conditions by a set of appropriate structural and institutional measures.
• Short-term actions, which try to face an incoming particular drought event within the
existing framework of infrastructures and management policies.
The overriding objective of the long-term actions is adjustment to drought conditions, even under
normal situations, as a proactive and preparatory measure. This includes for instance the adoption of
water saving technologies, the increase of groundwater recharge, water reuse, desalinization, among
others, and at last the increase of water storage capacity. Depending on the severity of drought,
long-term actions may or not completely eliminate the risks associated to it. They are supplemented
by short-term measures which correspond to the actions taken during what is called a drought
contingency plan. The plan is implemented during drought but the shift to it is usually gradual
reflecting the progressive onset of drought.
A new conception about drought management is needed. A modern way to address this sort of
situations is mainly based on developing comprehensive, long-term drought preparedness policies
and action plans that may significantly decrease the risks associated to extreme weather events,
reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience to drought. It should include prevention (in order to
reduce the risk and effects of uncertainty) and mitigation (measures undertaken to limit the adverse
impacts of hazards) strategies.
Proactive management involves modification of infrastructures and laws, institutional agreements
and the improvement of public awareness.
The drought management strategy should include sufficient capacity for contingency planning
before the onset of drought, and appropriate policies to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience
to drought. An effective drought plan is one that has an optimal combination of both long and short-
term measures.

E.1 - Long-term resource management

It involves efficient use and resource protection strategies designed to effective permanent change
in how water is managed and used. Main management measures deal with water conservation.
While there is no universally accepted definition of water conservation, this term is often used to
mean “saving water” through efficient or wise use. In terms of utility management activities for
dealing with water shortages, conservation can mean both short-term curtailment of demand and
long-term resource management.
Long-term resource management involves efficient use and resource protection strategies designed
to effective permanent change in how water is managed and used (see chapter I).

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E.2 - Educational programs. Social awareness

A broad education program to raise awareness of short and long-term water supply issues will help
ensure that people know how to respond to drought when it occurs and that drought planning does
not lose ground during non-drought years.
It would be useful to tailor information to the needs of specific groups (e.g. elementary and
secondary education, farmers, small business, industry, homeowners). Factual material and
diagrams describing the local anthropogenic water cycle would help all concerned people to
understand the issues about water availability and environmental protection.
Consumer’s education is a must since any measures on facing drought must be accepted, adopted,
and carried out in many instances by the consumer.
Since professionals are responsible to implement drought measures, they must be educated and
trained accordingly. The responsible person for drought management should consider developing
presentations and educational materials for public events such as water awareness days, relevant
trade shows, specialised workshops, and other gatherings that focus on natural resources
management.

E.3 - Research

Technological and social change is improving the ability to more effectively manage water and
other shared natural resources during periods of drought. These changes can facilitate the shift to
risk management because they will allow managers to address some of the more serious
deficiencies of the crisis management approach. For example, our ability to monitor and
disseminate critical drought-related information has been enhanced by new technologies such as
automated weather stations, satellites, computers and improved communication techniques (e.g.
Internet).
Previous drought response efforts have been hampered by a lack of adequate early warning systems
and insufficient information flow within and between levels of decision makers.
Simultaneously, an improved understanding of complex atmospheric-oceanic systems and the
development of new computer models have improved drought forecast skills for some regions. If
they become part of a comprehensive early warning system, these advancements and others can
provide decision makers with better and more timely data and information (compare chapter II.C).
Therefore research efforts must be considered as a valuable prevention tool and issues that could be
addressed on drought preparedness include :
• Supporting and strengthening programmes for the systematic collection and processing
of meteorological and hydrological observations.
• Building and strengthening scientific networks for the enhancement of scientific and
technical capacities in meteorology, hydrology and other related fields to drought.
• Development of vulnerability assessment methodologies under different environmental
conditions.
• Improved understanding of drought climatology (frequency, intensity and spatial extent)
and of drought patterns.
• Development of standardized indicators for specific use, including hazards assessments.
• Development of decision support models for the dissemination of drought-related
information to end users and appropriate methods to encourage feedback on climate and
water supply assessment products.
• Improvement of the monitoring, modelling and prediction capacities and improved
communication of how this information can be applied in decision support.

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F . DROUGHT MANAGEMENT PLANS

Nowadays, there is more and more awareness and sensitizing among decision-makers about the
necessity to move to a more proactive approach in drought management. The planning process
takes place before the onset of drought whereas its implementation is partitioned over a long period
of time, before drought starts until some time after it has passed. The planning process should never
end in drought prone countries, but be continuous through evaluation of the plan and its
amendments to adapt it to the dynamic changes. The most arduous part however is to get started.
As the primary concern of drought is water shortage, most of the planned activities aim at reducing
the effect of such shortage, through measures that are taken before, during and after drought. The
activities per se comprise a wide range of measures to reduce societal vulnerability that are not
necessarily linked to water resources. In addition to planning, effective water resources
management in drought prone areas hinges on the institutional and legal set-up established for
addressing the interrelated issues of water conservation and planning for drought.
Because of the close relationship between water resources and drought, drought management is an
essential element of national water resources policy and strategies.
Drought management plans must be prepared in advance before they are needed, based on specific
legislation and after careful studies are carried out concerning the definition of the drought, its
effect and the mitigation measures.

F.1 Drought plan basic questions

F.1.1 - Evaluation of drought effects

Drought effects may be environmental, social, economical, national, strategic, etc. These effects,
direct or indirect, must be considered and evaluated and plans drawn to minimize their effects. For
instance, drought may cause food shortage or may cause unemployment to farmers or to employees
of an adversely affected industry.

F.1.2 - Legal framework

Law sometimes drives and sometimes constrains water management during drought. Therefore, the
establishment of a legal framework to face drought must be developed in advance for success
response. Explicit legal frameworks for managing water resources under drought circumstances are
either lacking or fragmented in most countries.
Since droughts are considered as normal climatic phenomena, drought management plans should be
part of the general water management plans. However, since in most countries the existing
legislation on water management does not cover situations under water scarcity caused by droughts,
water legislation should be revised and amended to help water management under drought
conditions. The law should define drought beginning and termination and the degree of severity, the
establishment of drought management committees, their responsibilities and powers in the exercise
of their duties and the creation of drought management budget to be energized in cases of droughts.
Drought produces high environment damages as well as economic and social losses. Focus must be
put on policy, legal and institutional aspects like funding mechanisms to mitigate extreme drought
effects. Moreover, costs and efforts for implementation of other EU environmental policies and
legislation will be strongly affected when droughts happen. Therefore, foresee financial support to
prevent and mitigate drought consequences seems essential. As a result, it will be important to
foresee financial support to support water management under these consequences. Appropriate
funding under existing instruments may play a role in this respect

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Legislation, giving extra power to government and to the authorities, which shall act in accordance
to the drought mitigation plan, must be in force before drought occurs. This legislation should be
clear as to its objectives and authorities granted to those in charge. It must be understood that the
plan will be enforced under emergency conditions and there is no time for fooling around with legal
matters.

F.1.3 - Water auditing

Efficient utilization of water by all consumers is necessary and for this purpose, each authority
responsible for water distribution must carry out water auditing. This will reveal how much water,
how and for what purpose the water is used and how efficient, and the authorities will use these
conclusions to suggest or impose measures for reduction in water consumption under drought
conditions.

F.1.4 - Water systems capabilities evaluation

Water conveyance and distribution systems are designed for the supply of water under normal
supply conditions. Imposing water restrictions will necessarily require modifications to the systems
to make them adaptable for new working conditions. More isolation valves, flow and pressure
control valves, water meters, flow limiters, etc, are some of the many additions that may be needed
to upgrade a main conveyor or a distribution system for efficient water restrictions. These
improvements have to be made as early as possible.

F.1.5 - Establishment of drought management organisational structure

Drought mitigation plans should be realized with the establishment of a “Drought Committee” or
similar organisational structure which shall appoint to carry out the special issues related to the
drought impacts and measures to be taken and draw up the plan. This committee shall provide the
appropriate coordination at the different administrative and territorial level, national/regional/local,
and warrant the adequate transparency and user participation. A group of experts which should
advise the process made up of engineers, hydrologists, groundwater hydrologists, sociologists,
economists, etc, will continuously monitor the climatological behaviour and shall be responsible for
proposing the implementation of the drought mitigation plan.

F.1.6 - Identify group of risk and its vulnerability to drought hazard

Water resources planning and management for drought preparedness and mitigation starts by an
assessment of the potential and available water resources and the vulnerability of the existing
supply systems to drought.
The risk associated to drought for any region is a product of the regions exposure to the natural
hazard and the vulnerability of societies within the region to the event. Exposure to drought varies
regionally and over time, and there is little, if anything, that can be done to alter its occurrence,
because drought is a normal part of climate. Nowadays, it is an important issue for scientists to
understand the probability of drought events at various levels of intensity and duration.
Vulnerability to drought is also strongly determined by social factors such as land use, population
increases and migrations from one region to another or from rural to urban areas. Water use trends,
environmental degradation, technological changes, and government policies can also alter
vulnerability to drought. Vulnerability is dynamic and the factors mentioned above must be
monitored to determine how changes in these factors may influence the impacts of future drought
episodes.

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In other words, the impacts that result from future drought occurrences will be determined not only
by the frequency and intensity of meteorological drought but also by the number of people at risk
and their degree of risk. If demand for water and other shared natural resources is increasing
societal vulnerability to water supply interruptions caused by drought, then future droughts can be
expected to produce greater impacts, with or without any increase in the frequency and intensity of
meteorological drought.

F.1.7- Establishment of environmental flow regimes

The establishment of ecological flow regimes based on scientific studies and on the needs of the
aquatic ecosystems to ensure their good ecological status is a key element for water management,
especially during droughts. In many basins, flow regimes are still classified by only following
simple hydrological criteria (eg. by establishing a % of the water flow) without attending
requirements regarding temporal distribution and water quality. Scientific studies of flow regimes
should include modelling for drought situations. Data on flow regimes and their fulfillment should
be made public in a transparent and comprehensive way on a regular basis, similar to other data on
water or drought management.

F.1.8 - Prepare drought plan

The distinction between planning, as a continuous and complex process, and a determinated plan
drawn up is necessary. The preparation of plans is only a part of the whole planning process.
Drought management planning involves both long and short-term actions. Short-term actions are
arranged through drought plans prepared in advance. The main objective of these drought plans is to
limit the adverse impacts on the economy, social life and environment when drought appears, as
well as to try to face an incoming particular drought event within the existing infrastructures and
management policies. Drougt plans basically include mitigation measures.
A drought plan will provide a dynamic framework for an ongoing set of actions to prepare for, and
effectively respond to drought, including : periodic reviews of the achievements and priorities;
readjustment of goals, means and resources; as well as strengthening institutional arrangements,
planning, and policy-making mechanisms for drought mitigation.
Effective information and early warning systems are the foundation for effective drought policies
and plans, as well as effective network and coordination between central, regional and local levels.
In addition to an effective early warning system, the drought management strategy should include
sufficient capacity for contingency planning before the onset of drought, and appropriate policies to
reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to drought.
Since droughts are considered as recurrent natural events, drought management plans (figure 12)
should be a part of general management plans which shall be put into effect when realized that
water scarcity is to occur due to drought. The plan should be multi-annual assuming that droughts
may last more than one year. Drought identification is very important so that implementation is
enforced.
Drought plans nowadays tend to comply with the following characteristics:
• Completeness (all the elements required to make the plan work are included in the plan)
• Acceptability (the plan satisfies decision criteria and does not violate planning constraints)
• Effectiveness (the alternatives address the planning objectives)
• Efficiency (the plan addresses outputs to all inputs)

To be effective a plan must incorporate three primary components :

• a monitoring system
• an impact assessment system
• a response system

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Drought Plan Improvement

Review of historical Drought characterization

Droughts and Impacts

Drought Indicator Network

• Rainfall
• Stream-flow Plan
• Reservoir inputs Drought control
Audit
• Reservoir reserves
• Reservoir discharges
• Aquifer watertables

Mitigation Measures Activation

Drought states thresholds • New Infrastructures
calibration • Demand saving
• Management rules
• Restrictions
• Others

Figure 12 : Drought management plan process

An efficient plan must comply with some basic constraints. First, information on drought severity
must be provided to decision makers and other users in a more timely manner. This requires better
coordination of data collection efforts between responsible agencies, information sharing between
and within levels of government, and improved delivery systems. Secondly, impact assessment
procedures must be reliable and timely. Better indices are required to capture the severity of
drought, particularly in the spring planting period. Improved estimates of drought impact on yield
would help trigger assistance to the stricken area ; improved impact estimates are also important in
other sectors such as energy, recreation and tourism. Third, objective and timely designation (and
revocation) procedures are necessary to target assistance to drought areas.

F.2 - Drought mitigation measures

F.2.1 - Measures selection to mitigate drought impact

Drought responses can be classified as strategic, tactical and emergency measures. Strategic
measures are long-term physical and institutional responses such as water supply infrastructures or
law improvements. Tactical measures, like water rationing, are developed in advance to respond to
expected short-term water deficits. Emergency measures are implemented as an ad hoc response to
conditions that are too specific or rare to warrant the development of standing plans.

F.2.2 - Demand management

Drought could cause that the available quantities of water are less than the total normal demand.
Therefore water conservation and restrictions on water supply shall be imposed to the three main
sectors, i.e. irrigation, domestic and industry. The reductions shall be decided having in mind the
economic, social, environmental, national, health, technical and other parameters.

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Short-term curtailment of demand can be achieved through a vigorous public information program,
which can include both voluntary and enforceable actions. The curtailment is temporary and after a
shortage is over, consumers usually resume their former water use habits.
Main water demand management measures are the following :
• Policy changes
• Voluntary and mandatory use restrictions
• Allocation of priorities, compatibility and restrictions
• Pricing changes
• Public awareness
• Water ordinances with drought specialties
• Conservation credits
• Changes in irrigation methods
• Industrial conservation techniques
• Alternatives to water consuming activities

F.2.3 - Operational changes

Recently these kinds of measures have demonstrate their effectiveness :

• Conjunctive use management
• Water banking
• Water rights interchange
• Long-term changes in reservoir release rules
• Conditional reservoir operation
• Institutional changes
• Legal changes
• Operational coordination between systems

F.2.4 - Allocate strategic water reserves for drought conditions

Strategic water resources must be allocated as special water reserves, which shall be mobilized only
under drought conditions.
The term "strategic use of groundwater" is frequently applied to the use of hydrogeological
resources during drought periods, even arriving to its temporary overdraft. Concluded the crisis
their employment ceases to allow its piezometric recovery so that they are under appropriate
conditions for its application in future droughts. During droughts, a strict control of illegal wells
drilling and pumping must be implemented in order to avoid worsening scenarios and not achieving
the good quantitative status.
It is important to make an appropriate hydrogeological monitoring during the periods of normality
in order to study the capacity of recovery of the aquifers and the possible affections to the quality of
groundwater, so that the conclusions allow more efficient application in future crisis.
Certain strategic groundwater reserves have to be used under drought conditions. Overdraft and
recovery must be monitored. Therefore an effective control is also required in periods of normality,
avoiding these resources to be incorporated to the Water Management System like habitual
resources, accounting them as extraordinary resources to confront situations of drought.
The Drought Plan must settle down, in accordance with the indicator system, the staggered start and
stop of drought wells, their abstraction schedule and modifications due to quality water evolution.

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F.2.5 - Water resources increase

Increasing water availability from existing sources is usually very difficult if not impossible.
However water supply may be increased by :
• Strategic groundwater use ,drought strategic aquifers or aquifer recharge
• Treated wastewater reuse as an alternative to drinking water for non potable
applications
• Desalinization
• Reallocation of supplies
• Water importation by barge
• Mobilizing lower quality water for specific uses
• Increasing water pumping from aquifers that can afford it besides drought strategic
aquifers
• New storage in water distribution systems in order to increase regulation warranties
• New system interconnexions if the former measures are not enough to achieve the
human necessities

F.2.6 - Environmental and water quality changes

According to WFD, temporary deterioration of the status of bodies of water shall not be in breach of
the requirements if it is the result of circumstances of force majeure as extreme floods and
prolonged droughts, under certain conditions (Article 4 paragraph 6). In these exceptional adverse
circumstances, some relaxing must be applied to environmental constraints but preventing further
deterioration in status of water bodies by :
• Reductions in required low flows
• Alternative means of achieving water quality such as most efficient water treatment,
spill limitations, groundwater contribution to exhausted surface water bodies, etc.

Any reduction of the ecological minimum flow regimes have to be previously analyzed to
determine the negative effect of these changes on the ecological status of water bodies as well as on
the aquatic fauna and flora ecosystems, as they might have irreversible effects. Reductions of
ecological minimum flow regimes should only be made effective if these flows are required for
drinking water purposes.

F.2.7 - Timing

Water management plans under drought conditions should be well prepared before a drought occurs
and in conditions which allow clarity in mind, not “management under crisis” and which will
provide time to be prepared for the worse. Waiting for the last moment to act causes panic and
despair, resulting in many cases to ineffective and uncoordinated actions. Most of all, the
consumers are not conviced of the severity of the problem or do not give their total support. Plans
made in advance shall provide the time to those involved to prepare them and take actions to
minimize adverse effects.

F.3 - Measures to take under prolonged drought to be stated in the River Management Plan

Drought mitigation plan should be linked to WFD and incorporated to the River Management Plan
as a supplementary plan, including at least :
• Indicators system and threshold establishing the level at which the exceptional
circumstances appeared. Another level for pre-alert and alert should be defined.

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• Measures to be taken in the pre-alert and alert phases in order to prevent deterioration in
water status.
• All the reasonable measures to set up in case of prolonged drought in order to avoid
further deterioration of water state.
• All practicable measures to be taken with the aim of restoring the body of water to its
status prior to effects of those circumstances as soon as reasonably practicable.
• Summary of effects and measures.

F.4 - Drought monitoring and networks

F.4.1 - Continuous monitoring and control of the water consumed and water lost

Water consumed should be continuously recorded, stored and processed so that it is known on what
uses the water is consumed, for domestic, industry, irrigation and environment. Control of the water
consumption is necessary so that valuable water, in most cases heavily subsidized, is not wasted.
Continuous monitoring and control of water lost in leakage, evaporation, etc, is a must to take the
necessary measures to minimize losses and for water balance purposes.

F.4.2 - Continuous monitoring of water status

This method will provide collection, storing and processing of data related to precipitation, river
flows, dam inflows, aquifer recharge, change of water levels in dams reservoirs and aquifers, losses
(leakage, evaporation, breakage, etc). For this purpose, special information networks must be
established for automatic collection of the information, involving groundwater and surface water,
according to WFD criteria (in particular groundwater quantitative status).

F.4.3 - Continuous forecast of expected water resources

Forecasting of expected available water for the next few years for which a drought management
plan must be prepared is not as easy as it sounds. Available actual data on river flows and
precipitation have to be statistically analyzed and statistical models prepared so those estimates of
inflows to dams connected with some probabilities can be made.

F.4.4 - Continuous evaluation of water demands, set normal and lower limits

Water demand for domestic, industrial, irrigation and other needs should be continuously recorded
and evaluated to establish actual needs, the water lost or unaccounted and the wasted water.
Minimum limits for each category of use should be agreed between the different users. Water
supply priorities based on economic, environmental, population health needs, strategic, national and
social criteria should be established.

F.4.5 - Improving the effectiveness of water use

Potential measures for the improvement of water use efficiency can be divided into those that aim to
improve the performance of water distribution entities and those which aim to improve water use
efficiency at stakeholder level. Measures can be further divided into those dealing with the
improvement of existing infrastructure and those related to the non-structural aspects of water
demand (e.g. improvement of organisation and management, improvement of knowledge about
water losses, establishment of information systems, improvement in determination of crop demand
and adjustment of water allocations, optimisation of timing, promotion of user initiatives for
improvements, and tariff systems).

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G - DROUGHT PLANNING EXAMPLES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

G.1 - Water allocation during drought

A common way to face water allocation during drought is the french model. The French Water Act
of 1992 seeks to guarantee a balanced management of water resources, allowing prefects to share
these resources in case of crisis. Several tools are used to limit the impact of crisis situations when
they occur: in the event of a proven crisis, i.e. as soon as the low flow-rate limits are exceeded,
various measures may be taken to temporarily limit or suspend uses of water.
Framework decrees have been drawn up for watersheds, enabling the rules and thresholds for
triggering restriction measures to be defined in advance. This approach greatly facilitates the
exercising of regulations during crisis periods. It also makes possible to have greater transparency
and better cooperation.
The document drawn up by the prefects indicates the warning levels (which may be gradual) and
the measures to take when they are passed : uses to be suspended or scaled down, priority uses to be
maintained – a definition of the priority of uses should ideally be drafted. The implementation of
these measures if thresholds are passed is stipulated in a decree. Several incompressible needs have
been identified and will need to be guaranteed for civil security, public health and national defense :
regulated nuclear facilities, hospitals, fire-fighting facilities, etc.
The measures taken by the prefect must be appropriate. They must be sufficient in light of the
severity of the situation and be in proportion. The prefects are also setting up contingency
management offices with a view to organizing cooperation between users. They may bring together
the various categories of users directly concerned as well as the fishing federations, nature
protection associations and local water commissions when relevant.
Cooperation is the watchword for any water management system. Indeed, the law hallows it in the
process of drawing up “Schéma Directeurs d’Aménagement et de Gestion de l’eau” (SDAGE),
bringing together the water field players for development phases and monitoring.
The public authorities assess what measures need to be taken to combat drought in light of local
circumstances (weakness of flow-rates for tables and watercourses, scale of withdrawals on the
resource). Drinking water supplies remain a priority use, but it is also essential to protect and
reconcile economic uses of water with efforts to safeguard aquatic environments.
Measures to limit uses of water may concern : the use of water for agricultural needs, the use of
water for washing private vehicles or filling private swimming pools, the watering of public and
private garden areas, the filling of man-made lakes, etc.
As water is a common resource, each person is responsible for preserving it. If they fail to comply
with the restriction measures defined in the prefectoral decrees, they may be fined up to 1500 euros
or even 3000 euros for repeating offenders.

G.2 - Water allocation priorities

All EU countries put first priority on drinking water during drought water allocation. Drinking
water interests are considered as essential for public health and will get priority allocations, whereas
optimal use will be made from the existing infrastructures such as reservoirs, and reductions in
drinking water demands will be improved.

G.3 - Other priorities for safety reasons

A special issue in drought in the Netherlands is water-level control in the low-lying part of the
country, where it is important to avoid irreversible land subsidence and to stabilise dykes and
structures. This constitutes a top priority for safety reasons.

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G.4 - Singular non conventional management measures for water conservation

Water scarcity is a reality in Cyprus. Presently, water demand for various uses exceeds the amount
of water available, while in recent years, the problem has been exacerbated due to the observed
prolonged periods of reduced precipitations.
In order to achieve minor water scarcity deficit, the Government of Cyprus has adopted novel
actions for water conservation using second quality water or “grey waters”: establishment of
subsidies for saving good quality domestic water through the connexion of private boreholes to
toilet tanks or for the installation of grey water recycling systems in houses, schools, for watering
gardens and toilet flushing, etc (see Appendix 2). Lightly polluted or “grey water” from baths,
showers, hand or wash-basins and washing machines is kept separated from heavily polluted or
“black water” from WC and kitchens. As a result, it is relatively easy to intercept each type of
wastewater at household level for subsequent treatment and reuse. With this scheme, cypriots have
achieved a drinking water conservation of 30 % to 65 %.

G.5 - Continuous monitoring, prevention and evaluation of drought consequences

In Hungary, the main drought problems and water scarcity are related to the decrease of surface
water resources which support main economic uses and to drawdown of groundwater resources
which furnish the most of drinking water supply systems. Ministry of Environment and Water
recognized that the effective management of water scarcity requires a monitoring system.
Therefore, a hydrometeorological monitoring system for the control of flood events, drought onset
and water resource continuous evaluation has been developped. The hydrological conditions are
continuously evaluated, making a Monthly Water Balance Report for the total area of the country,
monthly submitted to the Agricultural Ministry, to the Water Boards, and published on a web page
for general dissemination. This report includes the evolution of a state index (PAI-Index).
According to the Hungarian experience, it can be concluded that this report is very useful in
awareness and adverse effects mitigation planning. It must be highlighted that continuous
monitoring and forecasting are very important in circumstances of drought and water scarcity,
because the activation of drought anticipation measures and real time management requires
continuous monitoring.
Hungary has developed specific laws related to water issues. In case of drought, water service
companies (most of them are represented by the Water Directorates) have the right to reduce water
supply endowment to different users from surface and groudwater.
It is necessary to reduce negative effects of water scarcity in case of drought in a basin water
resources management framework. This can be done with water resource increase or management
measures. In order to increase available resources in Hungary, sluices in rivers, channels and
reservoirs have been built with good results, particularly in case of reservoir vincrease with large
basin.
As management measures, the Hungarian Drought Strategy was developed in 2003, based on own
experiences. It follows two principles: prevention and integration of drought consequences. Experts
are currently developing laws based on this strategy which follows twenty guidelines of which the
most important are :
• necessity of data acquisition for forecasting
• necessity of continuous monitoring
• evaluation of drought consequences
• necessity of land use plans, especially in “drought-sensitive” areas
• necessity of drought mitigation measures such as building of reservoirs, or others
solutions
• necessity of irrigation as the most effective application of drought damage reduction

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• necessity of harmonization between forest deployment plans and drought strategy

• necessity of of water use costs re-evaluation
• necessity of evaluation of drought effects on tourism
• necessity of event communication with concerned inhabitants and water users and
awareness dissemination to stakeholders.

G.6 - Drought planning legal framework

It is interesting, for instance, to have a look to the spanish legal framework which specifically refers
to drought in a planning process. The spanish legal framework determines the way to face the
problem for Public Administration and stakeholders. In the past, exceptional measures were applied
during a crisis but few of them were dealing with preparedness, mitigation and previous planning.
By the way, the former Water Act (1985) gave certain powers to Reservoir Committees of River
Basin Authorities in case of water shortage, in agreement with water rights. Reservoir Committee
submitted proposals to the Basin Authority Chairman with regard to filling and emptying reservoirs
and aquifers, according to the rights of the different users and the current hydrological situation. In
circumstances of unusual drought, the Government may adopt exceptional measures in order to
address the situation, even if concessions (rights of water use under certain conditions) have been
granted. Such measures may include the building of emergency infrastructures. Water Act also
described a water use priority list, from first to last in order of importance : water supply in urban
areas, irrigation, industrial uses for power generation, other industrial uses, fish farming,
recreational uses and navigation.
The experience acquired during the last droughts suffered in the country have showed how this
concept was inappropriate and demonstrated the necessity of new regulations and adequate drought
risk management.
The new legal framework deals with drought planning and management through modifications
introduced in the Water Act. For instance, Government may authorize the River Basin Authority to
set up Water Interchange Centers (Water Bank) to enable user rights to be waved by voluntary
agreement (Water Act, article 71). Specific legislation related to drought can be found in National
Water Plan Act (Act 10/2001, article 27 “Droughts management”), which establishes that Ministry
of Environment must establishe a global Hydrological Indicators System (HIS), and River Basin
Authorities (Confederaciones Hidrográficas) must prepare Special Plans submit them to respective
River Basin Councils and Environment Ministry for approval. A Special Plan includes water supply
(for more than 20000 inhabitants) directives in case of drought or drought warning.
The process is as follows : River Basin Authority declares state of Drought or Drought Warning,
according to the HIS threshold, initiating the measures included in the Special Plan. The institutions
responsible for water supply (for more than 20000 inhabitants) have to draw up a Drought
Emergency Plan and implement it when the state of drought or warning has been declared by the
River Basin Authority.
The Water Directorate will have prepared a Guide in order to facilitate and coordinate de process
with the River Basin Authorities. The process goes as in the following figure 13 :

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WATER RESOURCES ASSESSMENT

WATER DEMANDS AND USES ASSESSMENT

HISTORICAL DROUGHTS ASSESSMENT

DROUGHT IMPACT ZONIF ICATION

INDICATOR NETWORK DEFINITION FOR EACH ZONE

THRESHOLD CALIBRATION WITH HISTORICAL DROUGHTS

3 Levels : Normality Alert Drought

PROGRESSIVE DROUGHT MITIGATION MEASURES FOR EACH

DROUGHT LEVEL

Figure 13 : Drought Special Plan drawing up Guide (Spanish Ministry of Environment)

G.7 - Other current practices and experiences in non EU countries

Many non EU countries within the Mediterranean region suffer effects from water scarcity and
droughts. Thus, measures to face these problems have been proposed in several countries.
Sometimes the selected solutions are usual practices which might have several ranges of impact.
Therefore, it will be important to assess whether the solution proposed is the most adequate one.

Water harvesting with small dams and soil and water conservation in Tunisia
In Tunisia, there is an appraisal that about 29 billion m3 of the rainfall is lost by evaporation and
transpiration and 0,5 billion m3 lost to the sea and to salty lakes. This water could be retained to
improve the over-exploited water table. Non renewable water resources are very stressed in Tunisia
due to the lack of capacity to retain the scarce renewable water resources.
Therefore in 1991, a long-term strategy stressing the necessity to conserve the national soil
resources and to protect the existing infrastructures was set up. Until 2002, this strategy has
permitted the construction of 580 mountain lakes (small dams with an average capacity of 100000
m3), 2000 small check dams to trap sediments and 2000 diversion dams for water harvesting.
A new national plan was established for the period 2002-2011 to manage and maintain 1,5 million
hectares in watersheds and to construct 1000 small dams, 3000 structures to recharge aquifers, 1500
diversion structures for water harvesting, 5500 protective structures for water ways and the
management of 15000 ha by traditional techniques of soil and water conservation.
The construction of small dams at different points on the hydrological network attenuates the flood
wave and reduces the erosion dynamics of the runoffs which are often violent in Tunisia (see
Appendix 2).

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H - COMMON PRINCIPLES

H.1 - Drought is not permanent water scarcity

Climate change, drought, and permanent water scarcity are interrelated, but these processes should
not be confused, or interchangeably referred to, if the complex issues of drought and water
management is to be addressed on a sound scientific basis.
Permanent water scarcity or permanent deficiencies are related to natural aridity, permanent over-
exploitation of available resources and hence unsustainable water management, or desertification if
aggravated by human footprint, while temporary water imbalances deal with the natural hazard
event of drought, often in combination with human activities with increased water demand.

H.2 - Drought management instead of crisis management

The traditional mindset has been to react to drought with a crisis management approach, through the
provision of emergency assistance to the affected areas or sectors. By following this approach,
drought only receives the attention of decision makers when it is at peak levels of intensity and
spatial extent and when water management options are quite limited. This approach is sometimes
referred to as the "hydro-illogical cycle" where concern and panic lead to a reactive response to
associated economic, social and environmental impacts, followed by apathy when precipitation
restarts and water resources return to normal. This approach has been characterized as ineffective,
poorly coordinated and untimely.
Drought planning tendencies nowadays develop towards moving from crisis to risk management.
Developing comprehensive, long-term drought preparedness policies and action plans may
significantly reduce the risks and vulnerabilities associated to extreme weather events.

H.3 - Need for drought preparedness

Droughts are natural recurrent components of the climate system but drought-related hazards are
expected to increase in the future. This increase in drought hazard may result from an increased
frequency and severity of meteorological drought, increased societal vulnerability to drought, or a
combination of these two factors. Therefore, today there is a need for drought plans which should
include prevention (in order to reduce the risk and effects of uncertainty) and mitigation measures
(to limit the adverse impacts of hazards). Drought impact assessment involves, at least, the
specific effects on economy, social life and environment that are vulnerable to drought events. The
following issues have to be supported :
• Development of regional networks for drought preparedness that would enhance regional
capacity to share lessons learned in drought monitoring, prediction, preparedness, and policy
development.
• Development and implementation of early-warning systems on different spatial scales (e.g.
regional, continental) in order to receive timely information on the possible onset and extent
of an upcoming drought event and to launch early measures to mitigate the effects in time.
• Education and awareness rising of policy makers and the public regarding the importance of
improved drought preparedness as a part of integrated water resources management.
• Enhancement of regional/international collaboration

H.4 - Need for advances in drought research related to effective measures development

Important issues that could be addressed on drought preparedness include:

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• Developing effective indicators and indices to detect and assess drought situations
throughout Europe.
• Development and dissemination of drought hazard, vulnerability and risk assessment
tools.
• Development of vulnerability assessment methodologies under different environmental
conditions, including the predicted climate change in Europe.
• Development of decision support models for the dissemination of drought-related
information to end users.
• Appropriate methods to encourage feedback on climate and water supply assessment
products.
• Development of decision support systems for the best exploitation of all information
available, including drought forecasts, in order to optimize drought management and
mitigation measures.
• Development of information systems to disseminate drought-related information to
specifically various end user communities and to encourage their feedback on the
usefulness of the presented products.
• Improvement of the monitoring, modelling and prediction capacities.
• Support of initiatives related to the development, improvement, promotion, and inter-
linkage of early-warning systems.
• Development of national and regional drought and disaster management policies.
• Development of comprehensive drought reduction strategies that emphasize monitoring
and early warning, risk assessment, mitigation and response as an essential part of
drought preparedness.
• Assessment of the availability of skilled human resources to be involved in drought
preparedness planning.
• Addressing the existing gaps and research needs for adequate risk methodologies in
order to establish objective links between drought indicators and thresholds on one
hand, and operational alarm levels necessary to perform decision making during
drought situations for taking mitigation measures on the other hand.

H.5 - Need for drought planning

Basic elements of drought preparedness and risk management strategies that guide Drought Plans
are the following :
• Effective information and early warning systems are the foundation for effective
drought policies and plans, as well as effective network and coordination between
central, regional and local levels.
• Drought management strategy should include sufficient capacity for contingency
planning before the onset of drought, and appropriate policies to reduce vulnerability
and increase resilience to drought.
• The problem of drought requires a proactive management developing actions planned in
advance, which involve modification of infrastructures, laws, institutional agreements
and the improvement of public awareness.
• Drought planning methodologies that could be adopted by drought-prone countries in
the preparation of plans have to be disseminated.
• Information delivered to stakeholders has to be standardized.

Drought planning must be developed at different levels and linked to the River Basin Management
Plan (RBMP) :

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• National level
At national level focus must be put in policy, legal and institutional aspects, as well as in
funding aspects to mitigate extreme drought effects. These are strategic measures.
General long-term measures are the focus of national level measures as well as
transboundery measures, but not exclusively ; these types of measures must also be
developed at RBMP level. In connection with river basin or local levels, national level
measures must determine drought on-set conditions through a network of global indices
and indicators at the national or regional level global basin indices/indicators network,
which for instance can activate drought decrees for emergency measures with legal
constraints or specific budget application.
• River basin level
Drought Management Plans (DMP) at river basin level are contingency complementary
management plans ro River Basin Management Plans. DMPs are mainly targeted to
identify and schedule on-set activation tactical measures to delay and mitigate drought
effects. Therefore, measures involved are mainly water demand or water conservation
measures and, with the progressive application of WFD schedule, measures to achieve
and comply with good a environmental status.
In this sense, River Basin Management Plans have to include a summary of the
programmes of measures in order to achieve the environmental objectives (article 4 of
WFD) and may be supplemented by the production of more detailed programmes and
management plans (e.g. DMPs) for issues dealing with particular aspects of water
management.
Regarding exceptions, “prolonged droughts” are introduced in the WFD as “force
majeure” events. Therefore, clear definitions of what is understood by “prolonged
droughts” will have to be established. The conditions under which exceptional
circumstances are or could be considered have to be stated through the adoption of the
appropriate indicators. Contingency drought plans must face these issues.
• Local level
At local level, tactical and emergency measures to meet and guarantee urban water
supply as well as awareness measures are the main issues.

APPENDIX 2

• Historical droughts characterization (B.1)

• Water management in drought periods in France
• Coping with Drought – The experience of Cyprus
• Water conservation in small dams in Tunisia

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III- LONG-TERM IMBALANCES IN SUPPLY AND DEMAND

A - PREAMBLE

Recent assessments on trends and evolution of water demand in Europe have revealed a clear
stabilization of the demand since the 1990’s thanks to demand management measures to reduce
leakages, the increasing use of water-efficient appliances that meter supplied water and the more
efficient recycling of waste water.
However, this demand trend is not that clear when looking at regional scale. The total water
drawing in Europe is about 353 km3/year, which means that 10 % of Europe total freshwater
resources are abstracted, leading to a situation of severe water stress in some areas. Because of local
and seasonal variability of water demand even within a country, some areas are particularly
vulnerable. Public water supply in northern Europe and irrigation in southern Europe exert the
greatest pressure on water resources respectively. Since 1998, the irrigated land surface in the EU
has continuously increased.
In these water stressed areas, the limited availability of water resources (depletion of some
resources and loss of others due to pollution) and increased water demands (greater variety of uses
and users) are the main causes of water scarcity problem. Remedial measures used to be based on
the development of new water resources to offset the increasing demand. However, the ever
increasing abstraction of the limited resource, in order to deal with a growing scope of multi-
disciplinary uses and avert global heating hazards, have stimulated a new management strategy
mainly economizing water rather than working out new water resources. To reach the goal of a
sustainable water management, balance has to be achieved between abstractive uses of water (e.g.
abstraction for public water supply, irrigation and industrials uses), in-stream uses (e.g. recreation,
ecosystem maintenance), discharge of effluents and impact of diffuse sources.
This new concept is defined as an Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) approach that
promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in
order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without
compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems (Global Water Partnership, 2004). This
approach is not only about “managing physical resources” but also “reforming human systems to
enable people to benefit from the resources”.
WFD is a good first step towards this approach in terms of quantitative management of water.
Throughout the program for the monitoring of surface water and groundwater status and protected
areas (article 8) and throughout the programme of measures (article 11), WFD proposes an IWRM
approach. Moreover, quantitative aspects are mentioned several times in these articles. WFD gives a
framework for long-term changes on quantitative management in order to deal with long-term
imbalances between supply and demand, recalling that “all practical steps are taken to prevent
further deterioration in status” (article 4a).
These practical steps can be divided into two types of measures :
• Measures for fulfilling demands using available water
• Supply side measures

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B - TYPE OF MANAGEMENT MEASURES FOR BALANCING DEMANDS USING

AVAILABLE WATER

In the past, efforts to satisfy increasing demand have often been principally expended on increasing
the supply of resources, which were available abundantly and at relatively low cost. However, the
relationship between water abstraction and water availability has turned into a major stress factor in
the exploitation of water resources in Europe. Therefore, it is logical that investigation on
sustainable water use in application of WFD is now reoriented on the possibilities of influencing
water demand in a favourable way for aquatic environment.
Integrated Water Management (IWM) is the new paradigm for a wish of efficient, sustainable and
safe supply of water. IWM usually means inter alia the use of the best water quality for each
demand, so different uses can be supplied with different qualities of water and consequently, and
water have to be collectyed from different sources and retorted to their end-users as efficiently as
possible. Nevertheless, in order to get real IWM from the demand side, it is also necessary to
consider the Shadow Water (SW), the water that, as a consequence of best practices, we don’t need
to use. The water we don’t have to produce, the water we prevent from leaking from the network,
the water we avoid using and that we don’t have to clean is Shadow Water, the best water we can
achieve for our safe supply, for our environment and also for our economy.
Probably, many of these assertions would be discussed on a short-term and economic basis, but in a
global and long-term prospect, they are unquestionable. Action towards a sustainable future has to
be founded on the use of IWM based on raising the offer of SW versus Real Water. In fact, ratio
between these two types of water is an indicator of the water supply quality.
Many experiences already exist in the “production” of SW. Some of them have been quantified in
different situations and we are able to consider some of its advantages and difficulties. Cost
estimations are time dependent, as many of them could be considered as long-term investments
which clearly overcome company budgets.

B.1 - Demand-side measures

Demand-side management is already well developed in other economic sectors like electricity, gas
or oil. Efficiency standards, product labelling and advice services to users are good examples of
actions set up. For example, household appliances are now stamped by the EU Energy Label that
rates appliances from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient). However, economic incentives are
usually more efficient than these actions. They can intervene :
• on the price of a good. From example, in France, the electricity provider EDF (Electricité de
France) proposes 3 different options : 1st option, a minimum subscription and a fixed price
per kWh ; 2nd option, a higher subscription and a reduced price per kWh during 8 hours per
day (usually at night) ; and finally 3rd option, the same as the 2nd one with a variability of the
reduced price per kWh depending on the period of the year (higher in winter).
• on technology development financing. For example, in France, FIDEME (Fond
d‘Investissement de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie) is a € 45 millions fund
to promote and facilitate the financing of energy saving as well as control and waste
improvement projects. The fund is used by subscribing bonds issued by enterprises that
develop projects eligible to the fund.

The Plan of Implementation approved at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD),
held in Johannesburg in 2002, included a specific directive calling for all countries to develop
integrated water resources management (IWRM) and water efficiency plans by 2005. As Global
Water Partnership technical committee stressed in a first version (April 2004) Paper on Guidance in
preparing a national IWRM plan, advancing the WSSD plan of implementation inherent in an

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IWRM approach is the recognition that truly sustainable water resources management involves
managing demand, not just supply.

B.1.1 - Technological approaches

Water usages can be prioritized according to their ability to answer to human and aquatic
environments’ needs following the “human basic needs” or the “aquatic environments survival
needs” to the “human being needs” or the “aquatic environments best conditions for life”. Thus
resource waters should be classified over periods of time referring to this prioritization. For
example, groundwater, which is usually of high quality, should be reserved for drinking water or
more generally for hygiene usages. Surface water collected by dams during winter should at least be
used to maintain life conditions (temperature, oxygen,…) during summer and, at best, permit the
good functioning of aquatic life cycle like fish migration or access to reproduction zone for
example. Thus inter-usage water transfer can intervene in order to answer to this prioritization.

B.1.1.1 - Water saving devices

Water planning, efficiency of uses, quality of the supply, storm water and reuse of water are
keystones to improve IWM (defined at the beginning of paragraph B). Many of the mistakes of any
type of water management come from the non linear pressures on water demand : droughts are
medium and long-term unpredictable events. For that reason, water supply pops up in the media just
a few months from when a new shortage starts. Consequently, questions and promises of new
investments just arise at this time. Many of them drive to quick answers that surely do not constitute
the best possibilities for dealing with water scarcity.
Water planning has to be ready for these circumstances, defining what has been done and what is to
do in each case by the appropriate person. The reality will probably be different whenever a new
case comes up, but we avoid a lot of mistakes and save a lot of water and money if we put on top of
the table different previously deemed possibilities.
Efficiency is not only a water managers question. Most people could expend less water just thinking
about this objective. Moreover, we are able to use less water just by changing some of our habits
while maintaining our standard of living. Water saving campaigns must inform citizens about how
to use water and which level of efficiency we could obtain through already available technology.
Pricing of water has to converge towards this objective : above the minimum of needed water, and
for a normal standard of living (between 110 and 130 litres per person per day), the price of water
has to achieve its full cost for industrial users and to be overtaxed for sumptuary users. Total
recoveries have to reach the total cost of the water including external factors like the price we have
to pay for aquatic system recovering.
Quality of the supply should agree with well-known standards and guarantee information to
consumers. No supply could remain without metering : establishing an account with a minimum of
reliability is an absolute requirement. Transparency is the key for a service that is considered as a
monopoly for the consumer. In order to increase the quality of the supply, blame and shame policy,
as well as an adequate financing, are necessary. A public water board must be considered to audit
these services in a consistent way.
Storm water has a promising future as a urban supply complement. Like in the past, collecting water
from the roof is a very good practice, especially in residential areas of the cities where family
houses are easily prepared for this collection. New technologies for filtering and storing storm water
will help end-users to implement these catchments.
Although urban water represents a small percentage of the water consumption around the world,
regions that periodically suffer from drought episodes have developed different strategies to deal
with supply shortages. Many of them come from the supply side but, as new sources of water

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become scarce and more expensive year after year, demand policies gain their place in the centre of
the debate.
Reuse of water is a common practice in dry regions of the world (figure 14). Europe reuses over
700 million m3/year. The reuse is considered, in many cases, as the future trend. Indeed, we need to
consider different qualities for different uses and to choose the best cleaning process for each
purpose. Second quality water has the greatest possibilities for urban supply. A lack of
infrastructures is usually a threshold for its development, but we need to establish standards for
water reuse in order to include them to new developments.

Market Maturity
Million m3/yr/ million population

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
EUROPE SPAIN USA1 AUSTRALIA

Figure 14 : Actual 2002 water reuse installed capacity vs population. European values include
Spain. Australian value are for Mediterranean climate States only. Eureau water reuse working
group, www.eureau.org

Water saving devices are often easily usable technologies in households, companies, farms and
governmental communities :
• Air devices aim at saving water by pressuring it enough to use less water for the same
result (high pressure coach cleaning or high pressure firemen device).
• Thermostats allow to avoid water losses to adjust temperature.
• Double command mechanisms permit to choose the amount of water necessary (double-
command toilet, dishwasher cleaning options).
• Timed length of flow regulation system enables water saving with the same efficiency
(drop by drop watering).

Water saving devices impact on water demand varies depending on the importance of water
consumption of the activity sector considered. In agriculture, developing water saving devices can
strongly impact water consumption especially during irrigation periods. In households,
implementing water saving device would help developing people awareness of the necessity of
considering water as a scarce resource. However, the impact on water scarcity problems would not
be very significant for two reasons :
• Household consumption is usually not the biggest part of water consumption of a
country where water scarcity problems occur.
• Because of the cost of these not widely spread technologies and the slow turnover of
home appliances, water saving devices often have difficulties to penetrate the market.
Long campaigns of information on their availability and advantages are required. Thus,
water saving device should be seen as a solution to help economizing water but not as
the main action of a management plan.

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Most of the water use in households is for toilet flushing (20-33 %), bathing and showering (20-
32%), laundry and dishwashing (table 3). The proportion of cooking and drinking water, compared
to the other uses, is very small (3 %). Statistic studies show that the water efficiency can be
improved in common household appliances such as toilets, taps and washing machines. Some
appliances are adapted in a better way to collective buildings such as public toilets (taps which turn
off automatically) ; nevertheless, most of water saving devices are not widely used because they are
expensive. But recent research and development has refined these appliances and made them more
accessible to the public.

Table 3 : Patterns of water use by households en England and Wales, Finland and Switzerland
(Lallana et al., 2001).
England and Wales Finland Switzerland
Household uses
(%) (%) (%)
Toilet flushing 33 14 33
Bathing and showering 20 29 32
Washing machines and dishwashing 14 30 16
Drinking and cooking 3 4 3
Miscellaneous 27 21 14
External Use 3 2 2

EU has recently established conditions required for dishwashers (Official Journal of the European
Communities, 7th August 1993) and washing machines (Official Journal of the European
Communities, 1st August 1996) “ecological labeling”. Dishwashers must not use more than 1,85 L
of water per cutlery item, washing machines more than 15 L.kg-1 of clothes in a 60 oC cycle, and
clear instructions have to be given about water and energy saving.
In addition to regulations, new technologies also have a positive impact on the use of water thanks
to these domestic appliances and have achieved important water saving over the last 20 years.
However, the difficulty often consist with encouraging the use and increasing the market
penetration of these devices. Initiatives can include the short or long-term renovation of the
buildings, such as offices, sports facilities, schools or apartment blocks, when companies or local
authorities decide to integrate water efficiency as a design criterion. Increasing the market
penetration of appliances in the domestic field is the most difficult and requires information
campaigns explaining the reasons and advantages of the new appliances, for example in terms of
water bills reduction. This is obviously a long-term process, since the turnover of such appliances in
individual homes is slow.
The impact of the use of water saving devices on water demand varies depending on the importance
of household demand in relation to total urban water demand. For example, a 10-70% reduction in
household water demand in the Netherlands, with a total demand of 1014 million m3, 57% of which
go to households, would result in a water reduction of 58 to 405 million m3 (6 to 40% of the total
urban demand). In the UK, with a total demand of 12117 million m3 for urban use, of which 44%
are for household demand, the water reduction would be 533 to 3732 million m3 (4 to 31% of the
total urban demand).
It would be necessary to encourage market penetration of these devices by increasing the
information for users and seeking the cooperation of producers (better information to consumers
about the available technologies).

B.1.1.2 - Water metering

Metering water can be the first step towards a succession of actions to reduce water consumption.
• Metering water at waterwork and households permits to localize leakages in the
distribution network.

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• Because price is often related to the consumed volume when water metering is
introduced, water metering is a good way to develop people awareness in order to make
them economize water resource.
However, it is difficult to estimate the effect of water metering on the decrease of consumption. A
10 to 25 % reduction is estimated as immediate savings from the introduction of water metering
(Lallana et al., 2001). This effect certainly depends on the consumer’s activity. Householders may
not be very regardful whereas irrigants may surely pay attention because of the relative importance
of this charge in its spending. This effect depends as well on the mode of pricing. Living standards
must be taken into account otherwise numerous and low income families would have to pay more
than wealthy families for the same volume per person and might try to economize that much that
they would reduce their hygiene whereas high income family would not be aware of the necessity of
saving water.
The impact of the introduction of metering of water consumption is difficult to separate from other
factors effect, particularly the water charges applied. It is also essential to have a correct balance
between real water consumption and unaccounted water. Water losses are better measured if a
meter is installed at the waterworks as well as at the consumer’s home.
However, immediate savings from the introduction of revenue-neutral metering are estimated to be
about 10-25% of the consumption, because of the effects of information, publicity and leakage
repair, as well as the non zero marginal pricing. Savings are also sustainable over time
(waterstrategyman – 2005, Guidelines for integrated water management).
The introduction of metering, as part of water demand management, is usually accompanied by a
revised charging system and regulation on leakage.
Water meters have usually been used to determine water consumption, but in some countries, such
as Denmark, meter readings will be used to calculate a pollution tax, on the basis that water
consumption indicates the discharge to the sewage treatment plant.
Introducing water metering to new regions would lead to effects to take into account (effects on
socially disadvantaged households which are more vulnerable to water metering and pricing – large
family, medical conditions ; waterstrategyman – 2005, Guidelines for integrated water
management).

B.1.1.3 - Leakage reduction in distribution networks

The quantity of water lost is an important indicator of the positive or negative evolution of water
distribution efficiency, both in individual years and as a trend over a period of years. High and
increasing annual volumes of water losses, which are an indicator of ineffective planning and
construction, and low operational maintenance activities, should be the trigger for initiating an
active leakage control programme. However, a leak-free network is not a realisable technical or
economic objective, and a low level of water losses cannot be avoided, even in the best operated
and maintained systems, where water suppliers pay a lot of attention to water loss control. Particular
problems and unnecessary misunderstandings arise because of differences in the definitions used by
individual countries for describing and calculating losses (IWA, 2000). The problems of water and
revenue losses are :
-Technical : not all the water supplied by a water utility reaches the customer.
- Financial and economic : not all the water supplied is paid for.
- Terminology : lack of standardized definitions of water and revenue losses.
Leakages are difficult to calculate. They can be involved in consumption that is sometimes defined
as the abstracted volume of water not restored to water cycle. They cannot be calculated from the
invoiced water because volume of invoiced water involves leakages at the consumers’ place. They
cannot be assumed as equal to losses because losses are not always due to leakages (evaporation in
industrial water cooling for example).

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Losses in the water distribution network can reach high percentages of the volume introduced.
Leakage covers different aspects : losses in the network because of deficient sealing, losses in users’
installations before the water is metered and sometimes the consumption differences between used
(measured) and not measured quantities are also counted as losses. Leakage figures from different
countries not only indicate the different aspects included in the calculations (e.g. Albania up to
75 %, Croatia 30-60 %, Czech Republic 20-30 %, France 30 %, and Spain 24-34 %).
It is possible to use different indices to express the efficiency of a distribution network. Many
suppliers argue that a large number of factors should be taken into account in leakage performance
and that the indicators described may not be comparable. IWA recommends the use of the
Unavoidable Average Real Losses (UARL) index which recognizes separate influences of Real
Losses from length of mains, number of service connections, total length of service connections
from the edge of the street to customer meters and average pressure when the system is pressurized.
In order to evaluate the maximum potential for further savings in Real Losses when the system is
pressurised, the difference between the Technical Indicator for Real Losses (TIRL - to be intended
as annual volume of real losses divided by the number of service connections) and the UARL must
be calculated.
Anyway, network meters are generally considered as necessary to enable good network
management.
In most rural municipalities, distribution network maintenance is not a priority (lack of regular
monitoring, networks plans). This situation coincides with a lower price of water than the national
average and a lack of a general use of domestic meters.
Tracing and repairing leakage can be very expensive. Increasing water production to feed leaks may
prove cheaper in some systems. The consequence is that local authorities may decide not to trace
leakage despite low efficiency ratios but continue their wasteful use of water (Waterstrategyman,
2005).
Even the systematic use of acoustic instruments such as correlators has its limitations too. The
solution could be found in the application of the minimum optimum rehabilitation methods, in
which the performance of the network is assessed according to standard of service requirements.
Experience has shown that the most efficient and effective way of controlling leakage is to divide
the network into a number of permanent districts by closing selected line valves and installing flow
meters on the few remaining key supplying mains. In this way, leakage can be continuously
monitored and the presence of a new leak identified immediately. In large and complex systems, the
division of a network into districts represents quite a delicate operation which, if not undertaken
with care, can create low pressure and water quality problems. In order to overcome such
difficulties, a fully calibrated network analysis model should be constructed, allowing the design of
the districts to be evaluated and optimized before the system is constructed in the field.
In England, the OFWAT and the Environment Agency succeeded in reduce leakages of about 6-700
Millions of cubic meters from 1996 to 2001. Since its peak in 1994-95, leakage has fallen by 1,869
ML/d (37%), enough to supply the daily needs of more than 12 million domestic customers
(OFWAT, 2000-2001).
Despite the difficulties to identify the most effective measures for leakage reduction, these issues
must be considered as a priority among demand-side interventions to be individuated in the
programme of measures. Furthermore, the leakage reduction must support the achievement of the
water balance at river basin scale.

B.1.1.4 - New technologies and changing processes in industry

Until now, a lot of emphasis has been put on reducing energy use in the industrial sector to reduce
costs. It was only during the 1990’s that improving water efficiency also began to be considered as
a way of cutting costs. Actions to improve water efficiency are focused on the process and on the
discharges.

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In a study carried out between 1992 and 1997 in the industrial sector of Catalonia, the Institute of
Energy (Catalonia, Spain) found that about 35 % of the proposed cost-saving measures were
implemented in areas of management and control, 32 % in the process and only 18 % in the reuse of
effluents. By implementing water saving measures, the amount of water saved varies depending on
the industrial sector. Following a study carried out by the same institute in 1999, the range of
potential water saving is 25 % to more than 50 %. The main findings for industry are as follows :
• The introduction of water saving technologies in the industrial sector is basically focused on
the most common processes : cooling and washing.
• Water substitution means immediate savings for an industry (cost savings correspond to the
drop in water charges, especially if the substitution did not imply additional investment).
• Improving the control of process conditions can reduce water consumption by about 50 %.
• Work in closed circuits can reduce water use by about 90 %.
• A reduction in the cost of the existing water saving technologies could encourage further
extension to small industries.
• Better communication between industries with high water consumption may help to
disseminate pilot project results on water saving technologies.

B.1.1.5 - New technologies and changing processes in agriculture (examples of irrigation methods
in some countries)

Irrigation permits to increase culture production on one hand and partly prevent from climatic
hazards on the other hand, obtaining a more stable output and a better quality. It also allows to
decrease risks on agricultural income. Water withdrawals for agricultural irrigation have clearly
increased since 50 years in southern Europe countries and mostly happen in summer (low water
period) when water is not very available. They are thus conducive to create or enhance water
shortage harmful for the other resource users and natural systems.
A reduction of agricultural withdrawals can be achieved through :
• A reasoning of irrigation with a precise adaptation of the amounts of supplied water :
launching of irrig ation from an irrigation balance, estimation of the existing cultivations
needs, irrigation recording book, etc.
• Leakage limitation by drain, infiltration, evaporation or drift : gravity irrigation
suppression, localized irrigation development (drop by drop) when possible, equipment
adjustment, no irrigation during maximum sunshine or when wind blows over 7 km/h.
• Collective management of disposable resource for agriculture.
• Changing the type of cultivations : less consuming or differently distributed in time
(winter cultivations instead of spring ones).

B.1.1.5.1 - Better control of irrigation

In order to achieve a balanced water resource management and a better knowledge of the pressions,
removed water counting is necessary. It is an essential tool to pilot the irrigation and permits to
know the actual amounts of withdrawals and consequently allows :
• An adaptation of water supplies according to actual needs for cultivations and soil
specificities.
• The control of the good functionning of irrigation devices (leak spotting for example).
• To give the opportunity to local stakeholders to set up a planified and umpired
management of the resource for all users.
• To make money savings by diminishing the removed volume.
But it is advisable to insure an as precise as possible counting, by means of maintenance and regular
standardization of the counting devices.

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Over the last decades, major efforts have also been made to adapt water consumption of irrigation
to water needs of the crops, in relation to its variety and lifecycle. Traditionally, the UN FAO
methodology was calculating the theoretical crop evapotranspiration. But water efficiency
technologies have significantly improved over the last years and current methods are more precise
to determine water requirements of the crop via analyzing soil humidity, plant and climate.
Strategically placed control sensors measure humidity in the upper soil layers and the trunk at a
high frequency. These data are transmitted to a central control station and combined to
meteorological data from a climate station close to the plot.

Maximum soil absorption capacity

for water
Soil Humidity in different soil
layers
Irrigation applied

Figure 15 : Example of a register of irigation and soil humidity (WWF & Acciones Integradasde
Desarrollo, 2005 : Proyecto LIFE Hagar. Madrid).

The resulting graphs show soil humidity and water absorption by the crop, facilitating the
establishment of very adjusted irrigation recommendations (figure 15). The frequency of irrigation
can permit to avoid water losses by infiltration and ensure that the soil is always partially humid.
This control of the plant access to water is an ideal way to develop production objectives regarding
a certain crop quality.
This method has been applied in different projects. In EU LIFE pilot project (www.life-hagar.com)
in Castilla La Mancha (Spain), 12 plots of vineyard, onion, alfalfa, sugar beet and melon crops have
been studied with soil humidity sensors (C-probes FDR), irrigation control, water meters, precise
dendrometers and climate stations. The average water saving is 14 %, with a range of 4 to 30 %
according to the crops. These savings are significant in an area with constant overexploitation (total
deficit of 5500 Hm3) and high water pumping costs. In the orange and mandarin Los Mimbrales
estate (Huelva, Spain) immediately upstream the Doñana National Park, 30 % of water have been
saved.

B.1.1.5.2 - Improvement of irrigation techniques : switching from gravity to pressurized irrigation

and other technologies

The irrigation industry is rapidly developing new technologies to make irrigation more efficient. It
is important to keep in mind that there is no one best irrigation method for all conditions. Any
method can work efficiently if it is appropriate to the circumstances, well designed, and diligently
maintained. In all cases, the proper application amount equals the water required by the crop, plus
the water needed to prevent the build-up of harmful minerals in the soil through a process called

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leaching. It helps prevent waste, minimize run-off and lessens the effect of drought. "Smart"
technologies, like systems with flow-control nozzles, climate-based controllers and automatic
shutoffs are beneficial and even required for irrigation systems in some areas. More and more
communities are moving toward rewarding or requiring new irrigation systems to include more
water-wise features with irrigation systems that deliver exactly the right amount of water at the right
time. The benefits of an automatic irrigation system include :
• reduced labor for watering
• convenience
• full landscape coverage
• easy control over irrigation timing for overnight or early-morning watering
• added value to home or business property
• minimized plant loss during drought
Traditional irrigation system controllers are really just timers. They turn the water on and off when
they are told, regardless of weather conditions. Smart irrigation controllers, on the other hand,
monitor and use information about environmental conditions for a specific location and landscape -
information such as soil moisture, rain, wind, the plants evaporation and transpiration rates, and, in
some cases, plant type and more - to decide for themselves when to water, and when not to,
providing exactly the right amount of water to maintain lush, healthy growing conditions. Because
smart irrigation controllers are more efficient than traditional, timer-based controllers, they also
reduce overall water usage, typically by 30 %.
Gravity flow surface irrigation is the spreading of water over a basin or along furrows by gravity
flow. Earthen borders check the spread. There may be pumps at the tail end of the field to recycle
excess water (if there is any). Fields should be prepared so they are level or slightly and evenly
sloped. A farmer can calculate the amount of water to apply (irrigation scheduling) by noting the
field dimensions, crop, stage of growth, climate conditions, and soil dryness. The objective is to
minimize the water lost beyond the reach of plant roots and the excess water pumped from the tail
end of sloped fields. Farmers close to rivers can drain their excess tail water to the natural channel
or let extra water percolate below the plant roots underground back to the river, thus helping to
replenish the quantity of the river flow. However, the return water carries sediment, soil salts,
chemicals and fertilizer, all of which diminish the water quality in the receiving stream. Careful
water scheduling benefits the environment by reducing both diversions and runoff. Since less water
is diverted, less power is required to pump water to the fields.
Pressurized sprinkler irrigation is the distribution of drops of water over the crop, imitating rain. For
permanent installations, pipes can be laid on the ground or buried (solid set). For mobile
installations, pipes may be moved by hand or supported by wheel structures that advance the
sprinklers along a field (linear moves, wheel lines). Center pivot systems, similar to linear moves,
rotate about well heads that supply water from underground rather than from canals. Sprinkler
systems are well suited for uneven terrain. These systems apply water most uniformly when there is
little wind ; windy conditions can spoil the application pattern. Careful monitoring and water
scheduling reduce over-watering. For linear moves, downward oriented drop tubes deliver water
closer to the crop with less wind scatter. The objective is to match the application rate to the
infiltration rate, so that the soil is wetted without water pooling upon the surface where it evaporates
or runs off the end of the field. Sprinkler irrigation can serve many purposes : frost protection, seed
germination, leaf canopy cooling, delivery of agricultural chemicals mixed with the irrigation water
and replenishing soil moisture during the off-season. But pressurized, elevated pipes also require
expensive electrically powered pumping. The degree of application uniformity determines the
efficiency of a sprinkler system. When water is unevenly distributed, supplying sufficient water to
the least watered areas means that everywhere else is over-watered. Compared to surface irrigation
methods, sprinklers permit better control over application amounts. Low pressure micro-irrigation
delivers water drop-by-drop right to the root zone so the plants take up water gradually from their
roots. Low pressure tubes allow water to seep through tiny perforations (emitters). Drip tapes and

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rigid drip tubes are rolled out over the surface, or buried under the soil surface. Mist sprayers are
used to apply fine droplets beneath the leaf canopy, directly upon the soil. This method can be the
most efficient crop watering method when the system is designed for :
• even application across the irrigated area
• careful timing to prevent over-watering
• water filtration to keep the emitters clean
The high cost of installing and maintaining a micro-system is justified for permanent high value
crops such as vineyards and orchards. As technological innovation reduces the cost and as water
prices rise, micro methods will find further application.

B.1.1.5.3 - Quota control

The water quota system is used to define the limit on water use or establishes how much to use,
when, by whom, and for what purpose water can be augmented and used. When users' behavior is
not very responsive to price changes, because of rigid price elasticity, or when uncertainty is
involved in the computation of marginal cost and benefit, quota regulation is suggested as one of
the measures for controlling water use (Tsur and Dinar, 1997; Mohamed and Sevenije, 2000). The
difference between the quota and pricing system is that in the former case, the marginal social costs
associated to each unit of abstraction are assumed to be minimal through the setting of some
standards. Likewise, the basic difference between a quota and right allocation is that the former may
have various attributes, including a pre-determined price, and be subject to modifications, based on
external conditions and number of users, or participants (Tiwari and Dinar, 2001).

B.1.1.6 - Water reuse

Reclaimed water is an alternative water resource (see reuse european project, www.aquarec.org).
Water reuse can be a tool in managing scarce water resources. Recycled water is being used as
substitute for many traditional non potable uses and for sources that provide raw water for drinking
water production (table 4). Such use can help conserving drinking water by replacing it or the water
taken from drinking water sources, and by enhancing sources such as reservoirs and groundwater.
The improvements in treatment of wastewater have opened new possibilities to reuse treated
wastewater. Hence, the indirect recycling of water used in many parts of the world has been largely
practiced for many years.
There are no formal european wide guidelines, best practice or regulations for water recycling and
reuse other than the Urban Wastewater Directive which requires that “treated wastewater shall be
reused whenever appropriate”. Disposal routes shall minimize the adverse effects on the
environment” (article 12). The EU needs suitable guidelines and definition of “whenever
appropriate”. This should however be seen in the light of the objectives of the directive (article 1) :
“…to protect the environment from the adverse effects of waste water discharges”. Significant
progress has been made through initiatives in some member states. To maintain the momentum
gained, the valuable initiatives in Cyprus, Belgium, France, Spain, UK and other countries should
be used as a base to develop water recycling and reuse guidelines and codes of best practice.

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Table 4 : Water recycling and reuse definitions

Definition
Reclaimed water Treated wastewater suitable for beneficial purposes such as irrigation
Reuse Utilization of appropriately treated wastewater (reclaimed water) for some
further beneficial purpose
Recycling Reuse of treated wastewater
Potable substitution Reuse of appropriately treated reclaimed water instead of potable water for
non potable applications
Non-potable reuse Use of reclaimed water for other than drinking water, for example,
irrigation
Indirect recycling or indirect Use of reclaimed water for potable supplies after a period of storage in
potable reuse surface or a groundwater
Direct potable reuse conversion of wastewater directly into drinking water without any
intermediate storage

The potential of reuse in Europe is high, especially in Spain, Italy, and to a lesser extent in France,
Portugal, Greece, Poland and Belgium. For example in Spain, a maximum water reuse of
2000 Mm3/year could be reached (Hochstrat et al., 2005).

B.1.1.6.1 - Applications

Although treated wastewater has been an important mean of replenishing river flows in many
countries and the subsequent use of such water for a range of purposes (figure 16) constitutes
indirect reuse of wastewater, it is becoming increasingly attractive to use reclaimed or treated
wastewater more directly. In addition, reclamation of wastewater is attractive in terms of
sustainability since wastewater requires disposal if it is not to be reclaimed (UKWIR et al., 2004).

Water Resource Reuse for aquifer

recharge

Domestic Industrial Irrigation

consumers consumers Golf Agriculture
Municipal reuse

Industrial reuse Reuse for

irrigation
Wastewater

Wastewater treatment

Figure 16 : Different applications of reuse

Treated wastewater may be used as an alternative source of water for agricultural irrigation.
Agriculture represents up to 60 % of the global water demand while the requirements arising from
increasing urbanization such as watering urban recreational landscapes and sports facilities, also
creates a high demand : water scarcity in Mediterranean countries historically led these countries to

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appropriately use treated wastewater in agriculture, irrigation of golf courses and other green
spaces, including those used for recreation in which individuals may come into contact with the
ground. It can be used to supplement artificially created recreational waters and for reclamation and
maintenance of wetlands for which there can be a significant ecological benefit and a subsequent
sense of profit to the community (see example of Costa Brava, Appendix 3). Concerns related to the
reuse of treated wastewater are similar to the reuse of sludge, in particular the risks of
contamination. Treatment plants are typically only equipped for biological treatment which does not
eliminate the chemical substances in the waste water.
In urban environments, treated wastewater may also be used for fire-fighting purposes or street
cleaning. In industry, the use of recycled or reclaimed water has extensively developed since the
1970’s, for the dual purpose of decreasing the purchase of water and avoiding the discharge of
treated wastewater under increasingly stringent emission regulations. This trend started with wash-
water recycling but now incorporates the treatment of all types of process waters. Virtually, all
industrial sectors are now recycling water, with examples in pulp and paper, oil refinery, etc.
Consequently, together with overall shifts in the industrial sector, a 30 % reduction of industrial
water consumption has been achieved in some european countries (website ref 1). Where water is
scarce, industries also use reclaimed municipal water to reduce their production costs.
An additional use may be the direct supplementation of drinking water resources through
groundwater infiltration and by adding it to surface water, with examples in northern Europe where
several cities rely on indirect potable reuse for 70 % of their potable resource during dry summer
conditions. It is even technically possible to use reclaimed water as a direct drinking water source,
although acceptability of the public may not be achievable yet.
The first priority to consider, with regards to the benefit and the public acceptance, is the recharge
of surface and groundwater bodies. This form of indirect reuse is a common practice : artificial
recharge of groundwater for saline ingress control, or potable resource enhancement, such as in
Flanders. Potable substitution is the second priority for any non potable application such as :
• reclaimed water for industry (for cooling water make up, process water to reduce
manufacturing costs
• agricultural and urban irrigation, to increase productivity and increase the value of
amenities such as parks, sports fields, golf courses as well as domestic gardens on new
developments, and finally agriculture itself.

B.1.1.6.2 - Public health and environment protection

The protection of public health is the key issue associated to water reuse. In addition to public
health risks, insufficiently treated effluent may have detrimental effects on the ability to grow
irrigated crops. The main risk associated to reuse in irrigation is a short-term hazard associated to
the presence of pathogens in the water. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set guidelines
for water reuse in irrigation, mainly based on fecal coliforms and helminth eggs counts, with quota
adapted to the use for crops.
In Europe, a few member states (where reuse is necessary for irrigation, like in Spain, Belgium,
Italy and France) had to overcome the absence of european guidelines or regulation by creating
their own national regulation. These standards are based on the WHO guidelines and necessary
conservative assumptions, the later leaving room for extremely severe requirements. It is worth
noting that, in contrast with some other standards such as the Californian Title 22, member states
standards for reused water are not based on technology.
For direct or indirect drinking water supply, the Directive 98/83 is applied with very strict standards
for pathogens and chemical contaminants, therefore offering a high level of public health
protection. There is however some concern that the current standards and guidelines were not
designed to deal with the mixture and individual contaminants that are unique to wastewater sources
and water catchments recharged with treated wastewater. Endocrine disruptors, pharmaceuticals,

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disinfection byproducts and pathogenic bacteria, viruses and parasites, and genetically engineered
products might be present at levels relevant to public health.
Hence, beyond the strict legal requirements for compliance with maxima designed for various types
of uses, there is a shift towards water safety plans which are based on a risk assessment of the entire
water cycle from source to final user. This incorporates a thorough analysis of the raw water quality
parameters and protection measures, the individual treatment steps, their capability to remove the
targeted pollutants, and the distribution system up to the point of use. This methodology uses the
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) approach where the multiple barriers appear
as the preferred approach to minimize risks to an acceptable level, in addition to the complementary
water quality control.
The opportunities for water reuse should also avoid or minimize environmental impacts to
biological, hydrogeological and cultural resources, and to land use due to the construction or
operation of reuse facilities.

B.1.1.6.3 - Technologies

All types of technologies are used to reclaim wastewater, depending on the initial pollutant type and
concentration, and treated water quality to be achieved. Stringent control of water quality and
operational reliability are the main requirements which drive the technological choices. The most
well-known example of reuse in Europe is the supply of drinking water through bank filtration,
where the local geology (soil aquifer treatment) and land protection regimes authorize the use of
surface water situated downstream of wastewater treatment plants. In such cases, the natural
processes taking place in the bank safely remove the pollutants and pathogens. Whenever needed,
these natural processes may be complemented by filtration on granular activated carbon for
pesticides and ozonation for micro-pollutants removal.
One third of the water reclamation schemes relies on secondary treatment of municipal sewage.
This level of treatment usually fulfils the requirement of cooling water in the industry, or irrigation
water where the food crops are consumed after cooking. One has to mention the possibility offered
by membrane bioreactors, which can replace the secondary treatment, while enabling to meet
disinfection requirements. Other advanced treatment may replace traditional secondary treatment
for reuse purposes.
More often, some kind of tertiary treatment is required to meet the industry or irrigation standards,
especially in the later case where disinfection is needed. Disinfection may be achieved by oxidation
with chlorine, ozone, or more recently ultraviolet irradiation. Granular activated carbon is used
where micro-pollutants are likely to be present.
The last case involves a quaternary treatment with membranes. The most common processes
involve either microfiltration (pore size of 0,1 µm) or ultrafiltation (pore size of 0,01 µm), which
also removes viruses. These treatments are the favourite technologies on sewage for the removal of
suspended solids, particles, bacteria and parasites. In addition, nanofiltration (pore size of 0,001
µm) or reverse osmose membranes (pore size of 0,0001 µm) are used when soluble materials such
as salts or dissolved organic matter have to be removed, in order to achieve drinking water quality
or ultra pure water quality for industry.
A combination or hybridization of different centralized or decentralized technical solutions is
needed to reach the specific objectives when considering the local water cycle. The issue is not the
availability of technology but the vision, experience and institutional infrastructure needed to
recognize and implement reuse solutions. These needs to build on the synergy between natural and
technological solutions that protect public health and the environment, reduce costs and energy
demand to treat and transport water.
In the interest of managing both known and unknown risks, advanced water treatment processes are
increasingly being deployed in recycled water projects to provide added assurance that unknown
risks are mitigated.

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B.1.1.6.4 - Water reuse benefits

Water reuse benefits all segments of the anthropogenic water cycle and should be considered as an
horizontal application that pulls together the normally segregated disciplines of potable water and
wastewater treatment for economic development, public health and environmental protection. Water
reuse reduces the competition for water between agriculture, public and industrial supplies by
increasing the available water resource and can be used as an effective cohesion tool across Europe.
Water reuse benefits are :
1 - Decrease of net water demand and value addition to water
2 - Potable substitution : keep potable water for drinking and reclaimed water for non potable use
3 - Lower energy costs compared to deep groundwater, importation or desalinization
4 - Reduction of manufacturing industries costs by using high quality reclaimed water
5 - Valuable and drought proof alternative water for industry and irrigation
6 - Reduction of nutrient removal costs to protect the surface waters through irrigation
7 - Reduction of nutrient discharge to the environment and loss of freshwater to the sea
8 - Increase of land value when developing brown field sites and with drought proof irrigation
9 - Increase of local ecological benefits, flood protection and tourism through the creation of
wetlands, urban irrigation, bathing beach protection and reduction of the need and cost of long sea
outfalls
10 - Control of the problems of over-abstraction of surface and groundwater
11 - Management of the recharge of surface and groundwaters to optimize quality and quantity
12 - Integration of all parts of the anthropogenic water cycle to enable cohesion between all
regulators and industries across Europe.

B.1.1.6.5 - Enabling the growth of water recycling and reuse

It is essential that the development of water recycling and reuse in agriculture and other sectors be
based on scientific evidence of effects on environment and public health. The EU needs a regulatory
and institutional framework tailored to suit local needs to take advantage of the water recycling and
reuse opportunities, and to help overcome the water shortage problems regarding cost-effectiveness.
It appears necessary to provide a comprehensive guidance document to ensure that any risk is
minimized and that valuable knowledge is available for any organisation considering the
implementation of a water reuse project.
In line with the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC, the civil society and the stakeholders must
be involved so that they understand and fully contribute to the decisions. The consultation required
by directive 2000/60/EC creates a momentum for a better understanding of water cycle, upon which
local projects should be built. For any project, the safety of the product and the systems has to be
proven, and the solutions must be justified and sustainable from environmental, economic and
social points of view. This can be achieved by the publication of clear and accurate documents on
the anthropogenic water cycle to overcome the lack of understanding of drinking water, wastewater,
water resource planners, environmental fraternities, politicians and the public.
The promotion of water reuse would benefit from clear guidance and best practice documents from
the European Union authorities (Durham et al., 2005).
DG Environment of the European Commission recognizes that wastewater reuse has a potential role
to play in the efficient and integrated use of water resources and is one of the actions that has to be
undertaken for a more effective water management. A preliminary discussion on this issue took
place at the EU Water Directors’ meeting in Luxembourg (June 2005).
Several research projects2 (UKWIR, 2004) provide the initial material for such a work, and
workshops3 have already been organized in Europe on the various aspects earlier described in this
2
In particular: AQUAREC, CORETECH, MEDWATER

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document. In the drafting of the guidelines, several points need to be precisely addressed. Beyond
an accurate description of the anthropogenic water cycle, the benefits and risks of water reuse for
different purposes need to be clearly explained. Moreover, the guidelines should provide a
framework for new projects implementation, since local authorities and stakeholders normally do
not have the experience to handle the various tasks involved. Consideration should also be given as
to some new legal requirements or financial incentives to allow Water Districts to encourage or
favour water reuse projects.
In addition to the appreciable amount of experience gained in Europe, the realizations and
institutional set-up in other water stressed regions of the world such as the USA, Australia and
Singapore, could provide some useful complementary concepts. As an example in Australia, an
achievable target of 20 % reuse of wastewater by 2012 has been set in some territories to highlight
the importance of reuse and focus regional strategies (Durham et al., 2005).
Finally, water scarcity solutions need to include economically justifiable water saving and demand
management techniques rather than immediately searching for new water resources. Water reuse is
one of a large number of alternative solutions but is important when considering the objectives of
the Water Framework Directive as water reuse is proven to increase water availability and reduces
surface water eutrophication. Agenda 21 and the widely agreed need to recycle waste materials are
dynamically being promoted and implemented across Europe. It can be argued that water recycling
has a higher impact on european sustainability than paper, glass and metals recycling and Europe
does not have guidelines yet to help innovators to sustainably recycle water.
See example of Cyprus and Sogesid case study (the reuse of treated urban wastewater : case studies
in southern Italy), Appendix 3.

B.1.2 - Economic approaches

Demand-side management efficiency is rather due to economic actions (research financement,

subsidies for efficient products, regulatory price controls, price incentives) and legal obligation than
to public awareness actions. Economic actions are often the result of public intervention in the
sector and public intervention policy depends on the sector and the country. Thus, the mode of
intervention, direct incentives (taxes) or indirect incentives (fiscality), must be adapted.
Economic actions are often a way of promoting one technology more than another. Distorsion in
prices, taxes or subsidies leads to competitive advantage of a service or a product to the detriment of
another one. The consequences for non beneficiary companies have to be foreseen. These incentives
can be proposed not only for alternative technologies but, as well, for programs that could be
developed by non beneficiary companies to reduce their clients’ consumption, for process evolution
or for activity diversification of these same companies. Attention must be paid on the choice of the
technology that receives economic help because the cost of a technology is often difficult to
estimate and some technologies are already helped through undirect incentives.

B.1.2.1 - Impact of agricultural policies

The increased water demand in agriculture has been stimulated by numerous causes, including
farmers’ response to market demands or in certain cases agricultural subsidies - often under the
CAP frame - that support certain production.
The EU and National agricultural policies orientate water consumption in several ways :
• by differentiating subsidies for irrigated and non-irrigated crops
• by investing into irrigation systems through rural development funds
• by paying export subsidies, often used as means to deal with European over-production, and
often in sectors in which volumes of production are directly linked to irrigation (e.g. tomatoes)

3
By UKWIR, EUREAU, AEAS Spain among others.

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There have been CAP reforms in the past few years, and these have -in part- diminished the direct
link between subsidies and volume of production (and therefore irrigation). The direct payments for
arable areas are now fully decoupled except for only two member states (France and Spain), which
have decided to keep these payments coupled at the level of 25 % allowed by the Community
framework. Indeed majority of MS didn’t follow fully the Commission’s ideas on de-coupling.
In order to reduce the effects of droughts and water scarcity, measures to promote adapted
agricultural production such as low water requiring crops (WFD appendix VI) are needed.
Furthermore, and in order to minimise drought impacts on water bodies, the cross-compliance
review in 2007 must include WFD standards as a baseline for cross-compliance.
Furthermore, some of the water-demanding agricultures still have to be reformed within the
framework of CAP, including the wine and horticultural sector. Reform proposals will be tabled in
due course. Although there are no direct subsidies in the Fruits & Vegetables sector, there are
payments to help producer organisations operate and also to place products on the market, as well
as export subsidies (but there are many other measures possible, e.g. similar to agri-environment).
The planned reforms should take into account the effects of the agricultural subsidies on water
consumption, especially in water-stressed areas. Here again the issue of respect of water
(abstraction) standards comes in.

B.1.2.2 - Examples of pricing methods for irrigation in different countries

Irrigation has a different purpose in different geographic and climatic areas of Europe. In southern
European countries, irrigation is necessary to secure crop growth each year, whereas, in central and
western Europe, it is used to maintain production during dry summers. These different roles are
important when analyzing water pricing policies in the agricultural sector because these policies are
often derived from more general policies (economic and social development in rural areas). This
difference is also important when comparing agricultural pricing policies between countries or
regions (see Table A, Appendix 3).
The situation regarding water tariffs for irrigation is often very different from other sectors :
• irrigation tariffs can be extremely low and there is significant lobbying pressure to resist any
increase
• water use in the sector has been subsidized in most of the countries (subsidies as a tool for
developing irrigation for food production and/or social development)
• tariffs can be based on forfeits
• meters may not be installed on many abstractions or uses
• public pressure concerning the environmental image of agriculture is much less than for industry
for example

Most agricultural water prices distinguish between charges for water resources and charges to cover
part or all of the cost of water supply for irrigation. The aim of the former component is to ration
water use (especially if it is scarce), while that of the latter is to guarantee that the supply system is
financially self-sufficient. Nevertheless, it is only in the regions where water is scarce, and as a
consequence is a tradable good, that water prices tend to reflect their scarcity values, as distinct
from supply cost (OECD, 1999). The cost of irrigation water supply consists of the variable costs of
processing and delivering the water to end-users and of the fixed cost of capital depreciation,
operation and maintenance. Variable costs depend on the amount of water delivered, while fixed
costs do not. In most countries, fixed costs are heavily subsidized (UN, 1980).
The method by which irrigation water is delivered affects the variable cost, as well as the irrigation
technology applied and the feasible pricing schemes. The irrigation water in a region is often
delivered by more than one method, depending on tradition, physical conditions, water facilities and
institutions (UN, 1980). The most common pricing methods for irrigation are described in Table B

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(Appendix 3). The most common system for irrigation charges is based on the irrigated surface,
followed by a combination of per unit area and volume used.
The adoption of more efficient irrigation technologies is accelerated by higher water charges but
also other factors such as land quality, well depths, and agricultural prices, are just as important, if
not more so, than the price effect of water itself.
Subsidies for the rehabilitation of irrigation districts and for new irrigation technologies might end
up increasing farm water consumption. Although water productivity could increase, total water
consumption at the level of the basin might also increase, unless allocations are simultaneously
revised downwards.

Examples of pricing methods for irrigation

Cyprus: Water for irrigation purposes is supplied through government and non-government
schemes. Irrigation water in government schemes is delivered directly to individual farmers (retail
supplies) and in isolated cases is also provided on a bulk basis to irrigation divisions. Non –
government schemes consist of small irrigation schemes, which are managed by committees chaired
by the District Officer. For irrigation provision through the government schemes, charges are
established on a volumetric basis and are uniform for all schemes covering a high proportion of the
total financial cost.
England and Wales: Multi-rate volumetric pricing is common. Water authorities greatly vary in
the complexity of their charging systems. For example, in 1984/85, the Wessex Water Authority had
9 different rates and the Yorkshire Water Authority 45 rates (OECD, 1987).
France: Irrigation water is commonly priced by a two-part tariff method, which consists of a
combination of a volumetric and a flat rate. In 1970, the Société du Canal de Provence et
d’Aménagement de la Région Provencale, which supplies 60000 ha of farmland and nearly 120
communes, introduced a pricing scheme in which rates vary between peak demand and off-peak
periods. The peak period rate is set to cover long-run capital and operating costs. The off-peak rate
is set to cover only the operating costs of water delivery. About 50 % of total supply costs (variable
and fixed) are subsidized by the State (OECD, 1987).
Greece: Per area charges are common. The proceeds usually cover only the administrative costs of
the irrigation network. The irrigation projects are categorized as of basic, local and private
importance and the project areas are also classified as areas of national, public or private interest.
The proportions of the capital costs of an irrigation project paid by farmers are 30, 50, and 40 %
for projects classified as of national, public and private interest, respectively (Gole et al., 1977).
Spain: The water charges are established per agricultural area and not per volume consumed. This
means that the user pays the same amount despite the amount of water used and there is no real
incentive for saving water (MMA, 1998).

In general, the amount of water used for irrigation moderately responds to water price levels but is
more influenced by factors such as climate variations, agricultural policies, product prices or
structural factors. Cross-sectional studies of irrigation districts, at both national and international
levels, have found conflicting evidence of the influence of water price levels on water management
efficiencies (OECD, 1999).

B.1.2.3 - Economic incentives/fines

Essential elements of water demand management programmes in the urban context are measures
dealing with economic incentives. Price structures are generally fixed at municipal level and can
widely vary within a country. The differences, in general, take into account different types of users
(e.g. domestic, industrial and agricultural) and tend to reflect differences in cost structures.
There is a huge variety in the types of metered tariff which can be used (Pezzey and Mill, 1998).
The main types of tariff structure (excluding the initial connexion charge) are :
• flat-rate tariff

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• uniform volumetric tariff

• two-part or binomial tariff (sum of a flat-rate tariff and a uniform volumetric tariff)
• block tariffs, which also usually incorporate a flat-rate charge, plus declining block tariffs and
rising block tariffs
Frequently, tariffs include a basic allowance (charged at zero or a low rate) to allow equity
concerns. A minimum charge for a volume consumed can also be applied. The same or different
tariffs may apply to different types of users. Rates and thresholds may vary over time, according to
customer characteristics (property value or income) or location. Two-part, rising block and
declining block tariffs are widespread. The two former types are gaining ground due to a general
shift of opinion away from consideration of water supply as a public service to its use as a
commodity with a correct price. Seasonal tariffs (summer/winter) are uncommon, but are becoming
more widespread. Peak tariffs (hourly or daily) have only been tested in experiments.
Tariffs may be designed with several aims, which may in some cases be in conflict:
• efficiency (maximum net benefit for society)
• raising revenue to cover the costs of supply in a fair and equitable way
• reducing environmental costs (abstraction and pollution)
• understandable for customers and applicable for administration purposes
In fact, improving the fairness or efficiency of a tariff often makes it more complex and more
difficult to understand.
Economic incentives (water charges and taxes) have mainly been introduced with the aim of
generating revenue to partially cover the cost of supplies.
Maximum economic efficiency is attained when the price is set at the level where marginal costs
equal marginal benefits. Volumetric pricing is a mechanism through which tariffs can be designed
to achieve efficiency and to account for equity (access of the poor) without involving high
transaction costs due to monitoring, measuring and collecting water charges. The effectiveness of
direct water charges on volumetric basis in changing the users' behavior will mainly depend on the
price elasticity of demand. Pricing of water can also reflect the quality of water. The higher the
amount used, the higher the price per unit. Users, both residential and agricultural, will adjust their
use behavior to the structure of the tariff, and respond by improving their water use practices. One
caveat is that in many countries, and especially in the case of irrigation water, the effectiveness of
price increase is affected by the difference between the value of unit of water to the user (the
shadow price of water) and the actual price charged per unit of water. In many countries, that
difference is so big that for any price increase to be effective, it has to be so high, that political
considerations may arise that will prohibit it from happening.
Irrigation water can also be priced on the basis of output per area, i.e. irrigators pay a certain water
fee for each unit of output they produce. The basic concept is that farmers should pay the charge
according to the crop productivity or the value of output, or the marginal value product of water per
unit of water used.
Subsidies can be provided either directly to users of water or for a water use technology. The
adoption of subsidy measures for promoting efficient water use is often practiced for promoting
environmentally friendly technologies, but it is also used to promote water savings, from which
society as a whole may benefit. Different types of subsidies such as grants or payments to farmers,
budgetary subsidies (e.g. tax credits), provision of extension services, preference loans, debt relief,
etc, could be implemented depending on their effectiveness and suitability to a particular country.
Tax incentives are designed to modify behavior by encouraging particular groups or activities, and
could be implemented in the form of preferential tax treatment to certain producers or residential
consumers through tax credits, exemption or deductions, or through tax benefits provided to
investors. Taxes are relevant in the case of negative externalities resulting from water use. For
example, the excess pumping of groundwater lowers the water table, increases salinity of the
aquifer and creates negative regional externalities. The excess withdrawal of water also results in
degradation of ecosystems because the minimum water requirement of the ecosystem is not met due

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to the lowering of the water table and the reduction of the regional water balance. A tax incentive,
equal to the marginal environmental damage cost, could be designed and implemented so that the
water charge also addresses these ecological concerns. Indirectly, environmental taxes can also be
imposed on the water-related inputs such as energy inputs and chemical fertilizers, which also
partly influence the level of water use and the level of externality. Energy usually used in water
abstraction is highly subsidized and encourages farmers to use more water at a relatively lower cost
of extraction (Tiwari and Dinar A., 2001). Such taxes can be designed so that individuals internalize
the externalities by improving water use efficiency and gradually adopt efficiency measures.

B.1.2.4 - Water banks and markets

Water banks or markets are mechanisms to sell or rent water use rights. They exist in the USA,
Chile, Canada and Australia. In Europe, water banks are a new concept and the only fully
developed experience is the one of the Canary Islands in Spain (Aguilera-Klink et al., 2000). In
order to tackle water scarcity problems, the Spanish government is currently implementing “Centers
for the Exchange of Water Rights” in the Segura, Júcar and Guadiana river basins and developing
legal regulations for water banks.
Water bank regulations have to ensure a difficult balance that stimulates the exchange of water
rights and, at the same time, protects the environment and every water user.
Water banks offer several opportunities to tackle drought problems : as water user acquires a
“value”, current water users save water in order to sell their rights on the unused amount of water.
At the same time, new water users (e.g. tourism) in water stressed areas with limited water permit to
have a legal way of acquiring water rights and would not illegally abstract it. Water banks can
furthermore support the establishment of environmental stream flows in certain river stretches,
either by establishing a percentage of sold water for environmental purposes or by acquiring water
rights. This measure can directly support the establishment of a good ecological status, as requested
by WFD.
However, water banks have some inherent risks:
• Upstream concentration of water rights can reduce stream flows in river stretches.
• Changes in water use can produce higher pollution.
• In water stressed areas, “virtual” water might be sold because legally established water
rights might exceed the existing resources.
• If a public water bank does not work adequately, a “black” water market might appear.
For all these reasons, it seems appropriate to introduce water banks in a step-by-step approach,
avoiding illegal water sellings and fixing a baseline water price that ensures that resource and
environmental costs are taken into account.

B.1.3 - Social approach

B.1.3.1 - Users education and information

Dialogue with users and participation of citizens is essential for an efficient water management,
permitting a demand regulation and a better use of amenities. Information and educational
campaigns in all sectors are always part of a wider plan to use water more efficiently by
encouraging more rational water use and changing habits. For this purpose, public awareness has to
be motivated. As a user, the citizen gives financial support (taxes) to mobilize and distribute the
resource as well as rectifying quality and quantity variations. Civic pression has to be as
constructive as possible, so it is necessary to inform people about roles and means of water
managers. Information campaigns as well as promoting water-saving devices, raising prices to pay
for leakages, are important initiatives.

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In the agricultural sector for instance, farmers must be helped to optimize irrigation by means of
training (on irrigation techniques), regular information on climatic conditions, adaptation of the
irrigation volume and period according to the type of crop, rainfall level and type of soil.
In the industrial sector, water savings are just part of a wider programme which includes measures
to reduce water pollution and implement environmental management systems.
It is difficult to quantify the effect of a public educational campaign because it is always part of a
wider water-saving programme which includes other measures.

B.1.3.2 - Institutional aspects : conflict resolution and administrative settings

The administrative setting of river basin authorities is a key factor to adequately implement drought
mitigation measures, especially those regarding law enforcement. Two recent NGO reports (WWF,
2003a ; WWF and EEB, 2005) show that administrative setting of competent authorities for water
management and implementation of the WFD are still a pending issue in many EU countries.
“Unpopularity” or concern for social consequences of drastic alleviating measures such as the
closure of illegal boreholes, make their practical application very rare. This fact does not help
respect the corresponding law and also explains why, for example, the Guadalquivir river basin
authority (Spain) waited 18 years to start mapping illegal boreholes in the Doñana National Park,
finding 100 % of completely or partially illegal water users in the first studies (CHG, 2003).
Lack of incentives to comply with the law is also due to the fact that suiting infringements through
administrative and legal procedures takes years and frauds can even expire before the suiting
process is completed.
In other cases, the existing legislative text is the result of a long negociation which has weakened
and altered the original objective of the law. For instance, the Spanish 1985 Water Act converted
water from private to public good, with the objective of improving the manageability of this
resource. However, during the negotiation of the legislative text, it was decided to maintain
property rights for all those that could prove to be water users before the entrance into force of the
act. This has caused a huge administrative overload. 20 years after, the filing of all the application
forms for the recognition of private rights is still unfinished. Frauds still exist, for example in the
hydrogeological unit 04.04 of the Guadiana river basin, the water volume associated to registered
rights currently doubles the unit renewable water resources. It becomes practically impossible for
some river basin authorities to manage this public good. In the Alicante province, on the
Mediterranean coast, almost 80 % of water rights are private.
A part of these shortcomings is due to a lack of human resources in water administration, both in
terms of staff number technical competences needed to deal with increasingly complex legal
requirements. Water policy actions should strengthen river basin authorities role and the capacity to
enforce the existing law. Moreover, the speeding up of judicial procedures against frauds would
help making the river basin authorities’ control action more effective than it is for the moment.

B.1.3.3 - Wider user participation

To keep a permanent dialogue, the user must be associated to the decision process and participate at
the most upstream level as possible to the different steps of the establishment of fixtures. The
adaptation of fittings to the demand is the condition for their acceptance by the public.
The place given to users in water management has been increasing with the passing of years. Water
services are developped for users but they have only been beneficiaries of those services for a long
time. Their place have gradually been recognized by the mean of organisations such as consultative
commissions of local public services where users are represented and can officially share their
positions.
A lot of associations have developped in water sector. Many of them deal with environmental
protection. They provide information to the public, education, actions in law, environmental

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maintenance and management of specific systems. Recently, a new type of (often local)
associations is developing in water services management and sanitation (management modes, price
of water, etc) in connexion with specialized consumers’ associations.
In France, a particular water services management have been developed : delegation of services. A
collectivity confide to an enterprise (after competition) the service exploitation and eventually the
investments charge. They are linked by a contract. Since the middle of the 19th century, this device
have permitted the development of big industrial groups like the Compagnie Générale des Eaux and
Lyonnaise des Eaux. Other smaller groups have risen these last years, often at a regional scale.
These societies distribute water to 80 % of the subscribers and assure collect and treatment of waste
water of 50 % of french subscribers.

B.1.3.4 - Education and awareness campaigns

The financing of educational and sensitisation campaigns must not be considered as a brake for
action but as a tool for promotion and profitability of this action. The message has to be adapted to
specific publics according to their interests. The size of the operative organism (global or local), the
width of the action zone and the level of information determine the accomplishment of the actions
vis-à-vis users and beneficiaries of a given project. A big organism will provide information at a
large scale about comprehension of the water cycle, the fragility of the resource and the impact of
the problems on health and daily life. This kind of information sets general public’s sight. A local
operator, directly concerned by a specific project in a reduced perimeter of action, will explain the
advantage of the project to the users, the correct and efficient utilization and the importance of
maintaining this fixture. The users targeted are the direct users and beneficiaries of the installation.
Useful information has to be selected in order to sensitize users and point their behavior toward a
better use of water and get their endorsement for the projects they are concerned with. The acting
informators must be aware of the needs and demands of the target public (as well as his link with
water) and use the field knowledge in order to be more efficient.
Dialogue and participation of the users can be achieved by two means :
• Meetings of different users categories and beneficiaries as well as their representatives
• Moderators visiting users for a more direct and individual contact

B.1.4 - Conclusion : integrated water management approaches on demand side measures

The management of water is very different accross Europe. A range of regional and decentralized
policies is existing. The WFD is an important step towards integrated management of water
resources at a river basin scale and towards harmonisation of water policies among member states.

B.2 - Supply-side measures

B.2.1 - Natural catchment storage

Water naturally stored in a catchment as lakes, rivers, aquifers and wetlands is globally abundant in
Europe with seasonal and regional variability.
Wetlands are usually considered as patches in catchments, isolated from other functional elements.
Hydrologically spoken, wetlands are discharge areas with many economic, social, natural,
environmental values and services as a source of drinking water, water for irrigation, fishing,
wildlife, biodiversity, etc. However, wetlands can behave like recharge areas to aquifers in many
parts of the world, generally in arid and semiarid zones. Streambeds in the catchment and
floodplains usually recharge aquifers during periods of floods or when high discharges occur. It is
especially important in arid and semiarid areas where rainfalls are usually scarce and successions of
dry years are unpredictable.

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Although the relationship between groundwater and wetlands is very complicated and not well
known, it is accepted that aquifers are the best manner to store water in these semiarid regions
where evapotranspiration exceeds the rainfalls and water deficit may be significant during many
months along the year. Moreover, storage water in aquifers decreases seasonally following the
characteristic natural variability of water resources in arid and semiarid regions, not suffering from
drought impacts as dams do (website ref 2). Some aspects regarding the role of wetlands in the
water cycle at river basin scale are tackled in the CIS Guidance Document N°12 “The role of
wetlands in the Water Framework Directive”.
Some experiences show us the importance of good management of natural storage water in
catchments during drought periods. For example, in Messana Valley in Crete, about 50 % of
recharge to the aquifer occur through catchment streambeds. During a wet year, the aquifer can
store 19 million m3 of water. Each year, about 22 million m3 are withdrawn to irrigate olive trees
and vines. In southeast of Spain, an alluvial aquifer (Sinclinal de Calasparra) is used during drought
periods to supply drinking water to 76 Segura river basin villages. Sebkhet Kelbia, located in
central Tunisia, is a big flood-plain wetlands of 1 300 ha and one of the 16 Natural Reserves of
Tunisia, designated for strict nature protection. It receives water from three rivers (Nebhana,
Merguellil and Zeroud) that rise in the near mountains (website ref 3). During floods, these rivers
recharge alluvial aquifers although outside this period the rivers are dry. Water from aquifer is then
used for irrigation (websites ref 4 and 5).
The ecological integrity of wetlands maintenance, especially for those located in arid and semiarid
regions, is not a simple technical question, but increases the supply of groundwater that may be
essential for many human activities survival during drought years.

B.2.2 - Aquifer recharge

Natural aquifer recharge (from rain or surface water infiltration) is vital in order to maintain the
groundwater and to replenish the discharges from the aquifer with a good quality water resource,
but in many cases is quite impossible to grant a sustainable groundwater level only considering
natural recharge.
In many areas of the world, aquifers that supply drinking-water are being used faster than they
recharge. Not only does this represent a water supply problem, it may also have serious health
implications. Moreover, in coastal areas, aquifers containing potable water can become
contaminated with saline water if water is withdrawn faster than it can naturally be replaced. The
increasing salinity makes the water unfit for drinking and often also renders it unfit for irrigation.
To remedy these problems, some authorities have chosen to recharge aquifers artificially with
treated wastewater, using either infiltration or injection. Aquifers may also be passively recharged
(intentionally or unintentionally) by septic tanks, wastewater applied to irrigation and other means.
Artificial recharge is the planned, human activity of augmenting the amount of groundwater
available through works designed to increase the natural replenishment or percolation of surface
waters into the groundwater aquifers, resulting in a corresponding increase in the amount of
groundwater available for abstraction. Before deciding on aquifer recharge as a measure to solve
water scarcity problems, an analysis needs to be undertaken if and how it affects other water bodies,
such as surface, transitional or coastal waters. Aquifer recharge cannot be made independently from
an understanding of the whole water cycle. Furthermore, previous to aquifer recharge, it is
necessary to identify the water services that benefit from this measure and how and in which
proportion they would be required to recover the costs of the measure. In this sense, artificial
aquifer recharge must be considered as part of a wider approach to water resource management
which addresses demand and quality issues as well as supply aspects. Although the primary
objective of this technology is to preserve or enhance groundwater resources, artificial recharge has
been used for many other beneficial purposes. Some of these purposes include conservation or
disposal of floodwaters, control of saltwater intrusion, storage of water to reduce pumping and

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piping costs, temporary regulation of groundwater abstraction, and water quality improvement by
removal of suspended solids by filtration through the ground or by dilution by mixing with
naturally-occurring groundwaters (Asano, 1985). Artificial recharge also has application in
wastewater disposal, waste treatment, secondary oil recovery, prevention of land subsidence,
storage of freshwater within saline aquifers, crop development, and streamflow augmentation
(Oaksford, 1985).
Aquifer recharge with treated wastewater is likely to increase in future because it can :
• restore depleted groundwater levels
• provide a barrier to saline intrusion in coastal zones
• facilitate water storage during times of high water availability.
If aquifer recharge is haphazard or poorly planned, chemical or microbial contaminants in the water
could harm the health of consumers, particularly when reclaimed water is being used. Wastewater
may contain numerous contaminants (many of them poorly characterized) that could have health
implications if introduced to drinking-water sources. Ensuring that the use of treated wastewater for
aquifer recharge does not result in adverse health effects, a systematic science-based approach is
needed, designed around critical control points, as used in the hazard analysis critical control point
(HACCP) approach. Such an approach to potable aquifer recharge requires a thorough evaluation of
the best practices that will protect public health, and consideration of environmental and
sociocultural concerns.
A variety of methods have been developed and applied to artificially recharge groundwater
reservoirs in various parts of the world. The methods may be generally classified in the following
four categories (Oaksford, 1985) :
- Direct Surface Recharge Technique (Asano, 1985).
- Direct Subsurface Recharge Technique.
- Combination surface-subsurface methods, including subsurface drainage (collectors with wells),
basins with pits, shafts, and wells.
- Indirect Recharge Techniques.
Direct surface recharge techniques are among the simplest and most widely applied methods. In this
method, water moves from the land surface to the aquifer by means of percolation through the soil.
Most of the existing large scale artificial recharge schemes in western countries make use of this
technique which typically employs infiltration basins to enhance the natural percolation of water
into the subsurface. Field studies of spreading techniques have shown that, of the many factors
governing the amount of water that will enter the aquifer, the area of recharge and length of time
that water is in contact with soil are the most important (Todd, 1980). In general, these methods
have relatively low construction costs and are easy to operate and maintain. Direct subsurface
recharge techniques convey water directly into an aquifer. In all the methods of subsurface
recharge, the quality of the recharged water is of primary concern. Recharged water enters the
aquifer without the filtration and oxidation that occurs when water percolates naturally through the
unsaturated zone.
Direct subsurface recharge methods access deeper aquifers and require less land than the direct
surface recharge methods, but are more expensive to construct and maintain. Recharge wells,
commonly called injection wells, are generally used to replenish groundwater when aquifers are
deep and separated from the land surface by materials of low permeability. All the subsurface
methods are susceptible to clogging by suspended solids, biological activity or chemical impurities.
Combinations of several direct surface and subsurface techniques can be used in conjunction with
one another to meet specific recharge needs.
Indirect methods of artificial recharge include the installation of groundwater pumping facilities or
infiltration galleries near hydraulically-connected surface waterbodies (such as streams or lakes) to
lower groundwater levels and induce infiltration elsewhere in the drainage basin, and modification
of aquifers or construction of new aquifers to enhance or create groundwater reserves. The
effectiveness of the former, induced recharge method depends upon the number and proximity of

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surface waterbodies, the hydraulic conductivity (or transmissivity) of the aquifer, the area and
permeability of the streambed or lake bottom, and the hydraulic gradient created by pumping. Using
the latter technique, aquifers can be modified by structures that impede groundwater outflow or that
create additional storage capacity. Indirect methods generally provide less control over the quantity
and quality of the water than do the direct methods.
For example, Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is a method of adding a water source such as
recycled water to underground aquifers under controlled conditions using infiltration galleries.
Treated effluent flows via an inflow pipe, then flows down through a chamber into covered galleries
(engineered trenches that facilitate the infiltration of water into the ground and consisting of parallel
slotted pipes containing either gravel or open plastic structures). The top and sides of the galleries
are covered in geotextile material to prevent topsoil from entering the galleries, while the base is
open to the in situ soil. The trenches are about 10 metres above the water table to allow water
quality improvements to occur in the in situ soil before recharging the aquifer. As the treated water
infiltrates the soil natural biological, chemical and physical processes occur to remove pathogens,
chemicals and nutrients from the water. This “filtering” process continues whilst the water
infiltrates and resides in the aquifer. The following water quality improvements occur during the
process : removal of nutrients such as phosphates and organics, degradation of chemicals such as
disinfection by-products, pathogen die-off. This significantly reduces the health and environmental
risks that may be associated with secondary treated wastewater, leaving the reclaimed water in
similar quality to that of the surrounding groundwater. This method costs less to treat and use
reclaimed water using MAR than desalination ; however should high quality water be required the
reclaimed water may still need to be desalinated. As there is much less salt in reclaimed water than
seawater, significantly less energy is required to desalinate reclaimed water. (websites ref 6 to 8)

B.2.3 - Dams

Reservoirs play an important role in public water supply, irrigation and industrial uses. The
construction of dams, however, can have serious implications for the functioning of freshwater
ecosystems in a river basin and ultimately impact livelihoods.
Dams disconnect rivers from their floodplains and wetlands and reduce river flows. They act on the
migratory patterns of fish and flood riparian habitats, such as waterfalls, rapids, riverbanks and
wetlands, which are essential feeding and breeding areas for many aquatic and terrestrial species.
Dams also disrupt the ecosystem services provided by rivers and wetlands, such as water
purification. By slowing the movement of water, dams prevent from natural downstream movement
of sediments to deltas, estuaries, flooded forests, wetlands, and inland seas, affecting species
composition and productivity.
The World Commission on Dams found that the technical and economic performance of many
water supply dams, both irrigation and bulk water supply, have failed to reach the intended targets.
The survey showed that, except 29 dams with a water supply component (excluding irrigation),
70 % of dams did not reach their targets over time, and a quarter of dams delivered less than 50 %
of the target. Equally, irrigation components of large dams studied by the WCD fell short on targets,
including the areas irrigated. However, dams with heights inferior to 30 m and reservoirs of less
than 10 km2 tended to be closer to predicted targets (World Commission on Dams, 2000).
When considering dams as a structural solution to water scarcity, the decision making process must
be realistic about the dam technical and economic performance, as well as about the environmental
and economic cost associated to the disturbance and loss of ecosystems and the services they
provide.
The construction of new water supply dams and the management of existing dams in Europe are
subject to EU legislation, especially WFD, which aims to ensure the environmental quality of water
bodies. The directive applies to all surface waters (rivers, lakes and coastal waters) and groundwater
in a river basin. Its objective is to achieve at least a “good ecological and chemical status” of all

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waters by 2015, as well as preventing from the deterioration of current status. Volume of water flow
is included in the definition of ecological status. This is of particular relevance to dams which tend
to interrupt streamflow. This has implications on new dams construction, which inevitably modify
water bodies status. According to article 4 (7) derogation provision, WFD allows the development
of new water infrastructure, even if it prevents from reaching good status. However, this provision
comes with a number of strict conditions, including :
• conditions for mitigation measures
• proof that there are no better alternative options in environmental terms
• condition that the project is either of “overriding public interest” or that the provision of
benefits to human health and safety (e.g. flood control) or sustainable development outweight
the benefits of achieving the directive environmental objectives. Furthermore, articles 4.8 and
4.9 are mandatory as conditions for these derogations.
WFD implications for existing dams depend on whether or not the water body is classified as
heavily modified, fulfilling article 4.3 criteria and respecting those of articles 4.8 and 4.9. In other
cases, dam sites may be subject to extensive mitigation measures implementation in order to reach
good ecological potential, particularly regarding minimum flow regimes, aquatic fauna migration
and sediment management. In addition, the fact that these water bodies also need to reach good
chemical status should be taken into account (Barreira, 2004).

B.2.4 - Use of basin-external water resources

B.2.4.1 – Alternative sources

DESALINIZATION
This techic is used when technically and economically feasible. There are more than 7500 desalting
plants in operation worldwide producing several billion gallons of water per day. 57 % are in the
Middle East and 12 % of the world capacity is produced in the Americas, with most of the plants
located in the Caribbean and Florida regions. However, as drought conditions continue and
concerns over water availability increase, desalinization projects are being proposed at numerous
locations.
A number of technologies have been developed for desalinization which include distillation, reverse
osmosis, electrodialysis, and vacuum freezing. Two of these technologies, distillation and reverse
osmosis, are being considered by municipalities, water districts and private companies for the
development of sea water desalinization (website ref 9).
Desalinization costs are very sensitive to the salinity of the feed water. Desalinization of brackish
waters and waters that are mildly saline can be economically justified for some high valued uses.
Seawater desalinization remains enormously expensive when all costs are fairly accounted for.
There is a tendency to promote seawater conversion projects that are joint with power plants. The
resulting costs are almost always understated because the power is subsidized and all of the joint
costs are allocated to power production. Seawater conversion is unlikely to be the solution to water
problems except in a few instances where there are no alternative sources of supply and there is
considerable wealth to defray the costs of seawater desalinization (Vaux H. Jr., 2004).
Water treatment costs vary by the amount of salt removal, cost of energy, size of plant, as well as
the type of treatment technology. Desalinization costs are dominated by capital investment, energy
and maintenance costs. Reverse osmosis systems, which utilize membrane technology for water
treatment, have the lowest cost of operations, especially in areas with high power cost. While
membrane technology advances have resulted in significant cost reductions, energy still accounts
for up to 60 % of the operating cost. Further improvements in energy efficiency will deliver
sustainable reductions in operating cost. Along with improvements in energy efficiency,
improvements in membrane performance and membrane life through integrated treatment systems
can reduce capital cost and life cycle cost. Membrane-based treatment solutions are essential to

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create new water sources such as brackish water aquifers, seawater, and even wastewater.
Membrane-based desalinization and reuse is a proven solution, but a broader application of these
technologies to create meaningful new water sources requires investment to further reduce the
energy consumption associated to the operation of membrane systems. The long-term, sustainable
solution to produce economical sources of new water lies in developing more advanced, energy-
efficient technologies to treat multiple water sources. As a practical matter, substantial incremental
funding for research and development would significantly accelerate the development of
economical sources of new water (website ref 10).

RAIN WATER HARVESTING

To help meet water demand, rainwater harvesting and grey water practices are commonly used in
several European countries. Traditional regulatory practices prohibiting rainwater harvesting or
grey water reuse as substitutes for potable water supply are changing. Applications of these
practices are supported by commercially available technologies. Where these practices and
technologies are encouraged by regulations, they are increasingly being used. The incentive may be
a lack of alternative water supply, or where available water is not an issue, the cost of publicly
supplied water may be encouraging acceptance (website ref 11).
Rainwater harvesting involves the use of captured rainwater, usually from a roof catchment, which
otherwise would have soaked into the ground, evaporated or entered the drainage system. Once
captured, the water can be drawn on for a variety of uses from irrigating crops or gardens, as toilet
flush water, in water features and occasionally as a source of drinking water. Watering a garden
with rainwater collected in a water butt is a rudimentary form of rainwater harvesting.
Where there is negligible potential human contact, the rainwater will usually only require coarse
filtration to prevent leaf litter, debris and small animals entering the system. If the rainwater is to
provide a potable water supply, thorough treatment is required, which makes this use uncommon.
During rainfall events, the first flush of water usually has the lowest water quality due to
contamination from leaf litter, bird droppings and wind-blown pollutants that have adhered to the
roof surface or guttering. For this reason, many rainwater harvesting systems divert the first flush of
water so that it is not used.
The amount of rainwater that can be harvested is a function of the rainfall received and plan roof
area. For example, in Northern Ireland, where 2004 annual rainfalls were just over 1000 mm/year, a
home with a 100m2 plan roof area could harvest 60 m3 of rainwater, assuming that 60 % of rain that
falls on a roof catchment is collected and used.
Legislation in France permits the use of rainwater for certain purposes and under certain conditions.
Untreated, the water can only be used for external utilisations such as irrigation and automobile
washing, or where there is suitable plumbing construction preventing cross-contamination or cross-
connexions, it can be used inside homes for toilet flushing. A number of experimental buildings that
incorporate rainwater harvesting systems have been constructed in France. Studies have
unequivocally demonstrated that such systems can be designed, constructed and implemented with
due regard to public and environmental health. It is claimed that an average residential rainwater
harvesting system can be fully amortized in less than three years.
National legislation in Belgium requires all new constructions to have rainwater harvesting systems
for the purposes of flushing toilets and external water uses. The aim of this legislation is twofold :
1) to reduce demand for treated water and the expansion of the water supply infrastructure ; and 2)
to collect and use rainwater instead of surcharging stormwater management systems.

DOMESTIC GREY WATER REUSE

Conventional toilet flush water is supplied water unnecessarily treated to drinking water quality
standard, an expensive and energy intensive process. Greywater recycling is an innovative
alternative whereby treated greywater is principally used for toilet flushing but also for gardens
watering. Greywater is wastewater from showers, baths, wash basins, washing machines and

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kitchen sinks although for recycling purposes kitchen sink and washing machine water is normally
excluded because it is too greasy and/or contains too many detergents to allow cost effective
treatment (website ref 12).
Unlike rainwater, greywater requires filtration to remove hair, skin and soap products from the
water and chemical or biological treatment prior to reuse. The potential level of human contact with
the water in its end use will determine what level of treatment is required. For example, greywater
used for hosing down vehicles will require a high water quality because the risk of human contact
with the water is greater in highly pressurized systems. Similarly, black water (toilet effluent diluted
by flushing water) is not recycled because of the even higher level of treatment needed before it is
safe for human contact. Public acceptance is also a major barrier here.
Perhaps the two biggest barriers to widespread uptake of greywater recycling are public concern
about the risk to health and system maintenance requirements. The health concerns are twofold :
firstly the health risk from contact with greywater in the normal operation of the system and
secondly the health risk posed by the breakdown or ineffective operation of the treatment system.
Greywater recycling systems are designed for minimal user contact with the greywater. Aerosols
from toilet flushing are the only potential contact most users will have with the water and this is
unlikely to have health implications if the water has been properly treated. It can be minimized even
further by closing the toilet lid prior to flushing.
There is a health risk however where treatment systems have broken down or not been maintained
correctly so that untreated water (which may have been stored for long periods) comes into contact
with users. Where untreated greywater has a long residence time in the system, the risk is greater. If
there are pathogens such as enteric viruses, giardia, cryptosporidium, salmonella and
campylobacter present in the wastewater from affected individuals, lengthy periods of poor storage
could result in the water turning septic and posing a health risk. The untreated greywater awaiting
treatment should instead be stored in a dark, cool container and continually stirred to prevent
anaerobic conditions. Despite these risks, there are numerous safeguards which together diminish
the health risks almost completely :
• Ultraviolet, chemical and/or biological disinfection
• Periodic inspection and cleaning of the system to ensure the water is being adequately disinfected
• Clear identification of pipework as carrying greywater and incompatibility with main pipework
• Pale colouring added to the recycled water to differentiate it from potable water
• User training covering how the system works and good practice to adopt to minimise potential
risks
• A manual “divert” option whereby excessively contaminated water does not have to enter the
recycling system
• Multi-occupancy buildings are likely to have greater water circulation ensuring the greywater used
is fresh rather than having had a long storage residence time in the system.

USE OF ALTERNATIVE WATER RESOURCES IN INDUSTRIAL CYCLE

Industry is one of the largest consumers of water. Water is used for processes as diverse as mixing,
cooling, boiler feed and plant wash-down as well as for washrooms and other sanitary uses.
Unlike most residential properties, industry and business in the UK are subject to compulsory
metering. With the cost of mains water, sewerage and trade effluent rising, businesses are
increasingly conscious of the substantial water, and therefore cost, savings that water reuse and
water conservation can achieve. For example the five finalists in the Industry category of the 2005
Water Efficiency Awards were able to cut water consumption by between 25 and 98 % by adopting
a combination of water reuse and conservation strategies. Enhanced Capital Allowances, a UK
Government initiative, promotes this sustainable solution and provides tax incentives for water
saving and rainwater devices and water reuse with membranes as well from September 2005
(website ref 13). In addition to these water cost savings other potential benefits to industry include
(website ref 14) :

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• avoiding water restrictions imposed during periods of drought

• reduced energy and chemical costs through recycling
• removing the need for discharge consents
• good publicity opportunity
• improved company image and reputation amongst the public, customers and own
workforce
• helping to achieve certified environmental accreditation (e.g. ISO 14001)
• fulfilling corporate social responsibility commitments

SUSTAINABLE DRAINAGE SYSTEMS

Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) is an approach to drainage which seeks to decrease the
amount of surface runoff, decrease the velocity of surface runoff, or divert it for other useful
purposes, thereby reducing the contribution it makes to sewer discharge and flooding.
As well as controlling the quantity of runoff, SUDS can also improve the quality of runoff,
preventing pollutants from entering the drainage system. SUDS will also “green” the urban
environment and should provide landscape, amenity and biodiversity benefits too.
Techniques that come under the SUDS umbrella vary enormously but usually involve some of the
following components :
• Permeable and porous surfaces to reduce surface runoff
• Ponds/basins for temporary storage during high magnitude rainfall events (detention
basins) or longer term storage (retention basins)
• Pipework and channeling to divert water from undesirable locations
• Structures that increase the lag between a rainfall event and discharge of water to the
drainage system by increasing infiltration.
The SUDS approach is particularly valuable in urban areas where high density development and
impermeable surfaces mean surface runoff can easily cause flooding, either directly or indirectly
through sewer flooding (website ref 15).

DIRECT AND INDIRECT POTABLE REUSE

Direct potable reuse (i.e. treated wastewater directly reused for drinking water) is very rare because
of the increased potential risk to public health and the negative public perception. Even though the
technology is well proven, direct potable reuse is only justifiable when there is no other option for
example in the desert or outer space. Currently, the only place where direct potable reuse takes
place on a municipal scale is in Windhoek, Namibia where treated wastewater combined with
surface runoff is treated to provide potable water. Direct reuse is common practice for non potable
applications in industry and irrigation.
Indirect potable reuse can be planned or unplanned. Conventional water treatment in many
countries involves unplanned indirect potable reuse of treated wastewater. Water abstracted from
rivers to provide drinking water includes treated wastewater that has been discharged upstream. It is
unplanned in the sense that it is not an intentional part of the wastewater discharge policy that the
water will be reused downstream for potable water supply. The abstracted water will still need to
meet potable water standards if it is to supply drinking water. River water may go through several
abstraction/treatment/use/treatment/discharge cycles before reaching the sea. The pursuit of
economies of scale has led to a tendency for large down-catchment wastewater treatment plants.
Planned use by relocating treatment and shortening the use/reuse cycle could increase water
availability for both environmental and other purposes.
The reason why indirect water reuse is not considered to pose a health risk is that the treated
wastewater benefits from natural treatment from storage in surface water and aquifers and is diluted
with “ordinary” river/ground water before abstraction to ensure good drinking water quality (part of
a multi-barrier approach in the water safety plan). The storage time provides a valuable buffer to

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measure and control quality. Direct potable reuse, however, is almost a closed loop system with
limited storage and a shorter buffer time therefore increasing the risk (website ref 16).

USE OF ALTERNATIVE WATER RESOURCES FOR IRRIGATION

Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the ground surface in addition to what falls
naturally as rainfall. Unlike energy production that gives back the majority of the removed water to
the environment, irrigation consumes half the water deducted from the environment because of
absorption and evapotranspiration (website ref 17).
Since the mid-1990’s, irrigation has consistently been the largest use for freshwater globally. In
France, a 66 % increase of the irrigated surface has been observed between 1988 and 1997. The use
of recycled water for irrigation is widespread because water quality standards are less stringent
where water is not for potable use or direct human contact. Irrigating land uses extensive amounts
of water so there may be cost savings associated to using recycled water too. The two main irrigated
environments are agricultural land (horticulture, crop production and grazing pasture for livestock)
and amenity/recreation areas (e.g. golf courses, public parks, and commercial landscaped gardens).
The quality of water required for irrigation of agricultural land will depend on the crop type and
whether the crop is eaten raw or cooked (website ref 18).

B.2.4.2 - Increasing availability of water resources

The creation of new resources is rarely a sustainable solution for environmental management,
considering the heavy cost and the impact on natural systems. But the creation of a new resource,
when ecologically feasible and within rational economic conditions, is conceivable, when the
imbalance is so great that other imaginable management measures seem to be insufficient. But this
approach mustn’t become an escape ahead. For that reason, withdrawals have to be stabilized in
order to keep the advantage of the resource creation in terms of restoration, because an increase can
contribute to the imbalance. For this purpose, collective commitments for withdrawals limitation
have to be made, leading to results with the height of the stakes, by the mean of existing collective
structures or creating organisms that gather the concerned irrigants when they do not exist.
Nevertheless and generally, the cost in capital of collective infrastructures for storage and transfer is
not affordable for the majority of the irrigants. These collective infrastructures have mostly been
funded par public collectivities within development planning general policy. The Water Framework
Directive compels to take into account the cost recovery from beneficiaries.
Therefore, it seems important for new resources projects to be preliminary analyzed
macroeconomically, so all merchant and non-merchant users can think in terms of cost/advantages
and notably taking into account the perspectives evolution of water demand in agricultural sector.
In the strong imbalance zones, a solution can be seen in the creation of small water dammings of
substitution of which the filling is made during winter with little impact on natural systems and
under the same conditions as cited before. In France for instance, the development of irrigation
since the 60’s has led to a correlative development of this kind of dammings at a superior rate than
the constitution of multi-usage and structuring resources.
The generally private status and the importance of those small dammings deserve to be the object of
an environmental examination. Indeed, the cumulative impact of these dammings at a basin scale
has to be taken into account and can be equivalent or even superior to the impact of a big unique
work.

B.2.4.3 - Inter-basin water transfers

The main objective of inter-basin water transfer is water security. In some arid regions, this transfer
is not a question of choice but a necessary act. Inter-basin water transfers are often seen as a fast
and easy solution to face drought and water stress situations. Transfers require a specific derogation

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and justification adjusted to the criteria established in WFD articles 4.7, 4.8 and 4.9. If these criteria
are met, transfers can be considered as the “last option” to address water problems. They often
provoke social and political conflicts between donor and receiving basins.
In their initial planning stages, expectations towards water transfers have often been overestimated,
as shown by a recent review of three different transfer projects in Spain (Tagus-Segura - WWF,
2003b- Ebro and Júcar-Vinalopó). Some particular aspects require special attention :
• water availability in donor basin, including water consumption expectations in the proper
basin and variations in rainfalls and evaporation due to climate changes.
• environmental and social effects of the transfer on the donor basin.
• effects of the transfer on the receiving basin.
• costs of water transfer projects.
• respect of the derogation criteria established in WFD articles 4.7, 4.8 and 4.9.
Considering water availability, the initial Júcar-Vinalopó transfer project studies demonstrated that
there were enough available resources. Nonetheless, after reviewing streamflows and environmental
needs of the Júcar basin, current plans for the Vinalopó transfer consider the pumping of up to
62 Hm3/y of groundwater from the Valencia aquifer.
Regarding the environmental effects, transfers usually worsen water bodies ecological status. For
example, transfers from the Tagus basin suppose a significant reduction of stream flows in the
Middle Tagus so the river currently has problems to dissolve urban and industrial pollution.
Furthermore, ecological processes dynamics such as erosion/sedimentation are crucial for the
maintenance of downstream ecosystems, as observed in the Ebro delta, and of the coastal waters
nutritional chains (Ibáñez et al., 1999).
In receiving basins, inter-basin water transfers often promote an increased land-use and stimulate
the increase of long-term water demand, as seen in the Segura basin for instance. The difference of
water quality between the basins can affect freshwater ecosystems and even provoke inadequacy for
potential water users, as the Ebro transfer project analysis have shown. Furthermore, aquatic species
translocation is an additional risk of transfers : the Tagus-Segura transfer has transported four fish
species (Carassius auratus, Gobio gobio, Chondrostoma polylepis and Rutilus arcasii) between
basins and promoted hybridizing with Chondrostoma arrigonis in the Júcar basin (Oró, 2003).
The costs of water transfer projects do not often fully reflect all the transfer and associated works,
infringing WFD cost recovery obligations. During the Ebro transfer project, different economic
reviews of the initial studies doubled the expected price of water from 0,31€/m3 up to 0,72€/m3
(WWF, 2003c).
Considering the upcoming new data, the Spanish Government is currently reviewing all major
transfer projects. The lessons learnt from this process should be taken into account in future
projects in all countries at an early planning stage, additionally to WFD mandatory requirements,
an option assessment, including non-constructive alternatives, is highly recommended.

B.2.5 - Conclusion : integrated water management approaches on supply side measures

Water Conservation and water demand management in Emilia-Romagna is a good case study to
illustrate integrated water management approach. Emilia-Romagna (44° latitude) is situated in
northern Italy in the valley of the Po river, bounded by Apennine Mountains to the south and the
Adriatic Sea to the east. The climatic conditions of the region are related to the climatic general
conditions of the Po valley (surrounded by the Alps and the Apennine) and are mostly influenced by
the mountains and the sea, leading to a high spatial variability of the precipitation fields. For the
region, but also for the Mediterranean zone, the water uses for irrigation are generally predominant.
In December 2005, the Regional Legislative Assembly approved the Regional Water Protection
Plan anticipating the WFD someway. The Water Saving and Conservation Programme is an integral
part of the Water Protection Plan. The Region, together with Basin Authorities, has established the
Plan objectives for each drainage basin with reference to the WFD. By 2016, every significant

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surface and ground water body must reach the “good” ecological quality status. In order to assure
the fulfilment of this objective, each classified surface water body, or a portion of it, must acquire at
least the requisites of “sufficient” status by 31st December 2008. For quantitative aspects, priority
objectives are eliminating water deficit in groundwater and maintaining a minimum flow in rivers.

• WATER SAVING AND CONSERVATION PROGRAM

The structure of such a program is presented in figure 21.

In Emilia-Romagna, the withdrawals (in million m3) in the 70’s, the 80’s and in year 2000 were
estimated as presented in tables 5, 6 and 7 .

Table 5 : Total withdrawals in the middle of the 70’s.

Civil Uses Industrial Uses Agriculture Uses Total
Groundwater 350 240 150 740
Surface water negligible 290 852 1142
Total 350 530 1002 1882

Table 6 : Total withdrawals in the middle of the 80’s.

Civil Uses Industrial Uses Agriculture Uses Total
Groundwater 310 227 193 730
Surface water 170 337 681 1188
Total 480 564 874 1918

Table 7 : Total withdrawals in the year 2000.

Civil Uses Industrial Uses Agriculture Uses Total
Groundwater 282 171 222 675
Surface water 205 62 1183 1450
Total 487 233 1405 2125

There is a modest increase of the total withdrawals, with a strong replacement from the industrial
uses to the irrigation uses and, partially, to the civil uses. An important decrease in the groundwater
withdrawals is observed. It is also interesting to note that the civil withdrawals are stable since the
80’s. The increase in surface water withdrawals depends on the regional policies developed to
answer the subsidence problems posed by the unsustainable uses of groundwater in the south-
eastern part of the region (Bologna, Ravenna and the coastal zone), using a canal (Canale Emiliano
Romagnolo, CER), which can take about 60 m3/sec from the Po river for agricultural uses, the
Ridracoli Dam builded at the end of the 80’s for civil uses and a stronger regulation of groundwater
withdrawals. Nowadays the groundwater annual deficit is estimated to be around 25 Mm3/y, with
the worst problems in Bologna and also in Parma. Considering the surface water, the estimated
deficit due to the future application of the Minimum Flow (MF) is around 47 Mm3/y. The average
regional consumption for domestic uses is 170 L/capita/day (L/c/d). The estimated overall (real and
apparent) leakage from the civil networks is 123 Mm3/y, which means about 26 % of the civil
withdrawals.
The application of MF is the most demanding task. The need to keep a higher volume of water in
the rivers impacts the actual use of resources with particular significance during summer when the
water flow is low while the water demand is at the highest level. In most of the cases, it is needed to
revise “historical” water withdrawal, that were already present in the last centuries for irrigation and

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old mills, and in the 20th century for drinking purposes. The level of the conflicts is therefore pretty
high.
The regional strategy is based on a twin track approach and, considering the regional situation and
water balance, is firstly based on the development of new regional policies for water conservation
and the demand management, not forgetting the infrastructural development where necessary (for
instance the local connexions with the Canale Emiliano Romagnolo. The Conservation Program
also includes a need to define a Regional Drought Contingency Programme. The main Conservation
Program actions are as shown in figure 17.

Actions
Reduction of the water losses Water and wastewater reuse

Agriculture Agriculture
Civil sector Civil sector
Industrial sector Industrial sector

Water saving and "clean technologies" Information and education programme

in the industrial sector

BAT Comunication campaign

IPPC Internet Site
Eco-efficiency Voluntary actions
Technological innovation Agricultural demonstrative project

Pilot Projects Research and study

Domestic uses Water cycle and urbanization

Rain harvesting Water consumption in agriculture
Water saving on households and industry

Figure 17 : Water saving and conservation program.

• WATER AND ENERGY SAVING

Energy production and use are responsible for the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions. Europe has
committed itself in the Kyoto Protocol to reduce those emissions which come from fossil fuels
burning, mainly coal, oil and gas. In its 2005 Green Paper on energy efficiency “Doing more with
less”, the European Commission set out a strategy to improve energy efficiency and to encourage
greater use of new, renewable sources of energy. The total final energy consumption in the EU in
1997 was about 930 Mtoe. A simplified breakdown of this demand shows the importance of
buildings in this context : 40,7 % of total energy demand is used in the residential and tertiary
sectors, most of it for building-related energy services. Space heating is by far the largest energy
end-use of households in member states (57 %), followed by water heating (25 %). The planned
water savings in Emilia-Romagna will directly bring an energy saving for the domestic water
heating of about 12 %, which means 3 % of all the energy needed in the residential sector (2,7
Mtoe/year in Emilia-Romagna region), which is about 1/6 of Kyoto commitment in the residential
sector of the region.

• RESULTS OF THE REGIONAL CONSERVATION PLANNING

The demand scenarios “business as usual” show an 8 % population growth for civil water uses,
stability in the unitary consumption and a “natural” reduction of water losses (26 to 20 %). The

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industry is declining since the 70’s. For agriculture, irrigated surface is still growing, but
technological efficiency at the field is increasing with an almost stable demand (no clear indication
from CAP). With the above conservation measures and assumptions, which must lead to a reduction
of domestic consumption of 170 L/capita/day (L/c/d) to 150 L/c/d by 2016, plan measures would
allow, in 2016, groundwater abstraction levels essentially depending on recharge capacity, also
enabling to progressively offset current piezometric anomalies. As for surface waters, critical
aspects are linked to irrigation uses of Apennine waters ; plan measures will foster resource deficit
reduction in view of MF application.

• REGIONAL PLAN FOR DROUGHT MANAGEMENT

The plan also outlines the first elements pertaining to the Regional Plan for Drought Management.
The report presented by IPCC predicts changes in the regional distribution of precipitations, leading
to drought and floods, changes in the occurrence frequency of climatic extreme events, particularly
heat events. Climate changes that were observed during the last decades in the region seem to be
consistent with the predictions and have social impacts even at a local scale. The Water Regional
Plan takes care about those aspects in order to define, for the first time in the Emilia-Romagna
region, a Drought Contingency Program at the regional and local scales. Studies realized for the
planning, using indicators like Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), showed that the last 15-20 years
were years of growing drought. Anyway this specific risk must be afforded as in other sectors
(floods, etc) with a planning strategy which shall be implemented after the plan adoption and asking
the local actors to define their Contingency Programs following the regional guidelines within 2006.

C – LONG-TERM IMBALANCES IMPLICATIONS

C.1 - Environmental concerns (quantitative aspects in the WFD)

The Water Framework Directive establishes that member states, in implementing the program of
measures specified in the River Basin Management Plans (RBMP), shall protect, enhance and
restore all surface water bodies and groundwater bodies with the aim of achieving good ecological
status (good ecological potential for artificial and heavily modified water bodies) within 2015.
Good status is defined, for surface water bodies, according to the ecological and chemical status,
while, as regards groundwaters, the good status refers to the quantitative and chemical status. So for
surface waters, the Directive is more focused on quality aspects than on quantitative ones ;
nevertheless, quantitative aspects are addressed through an indirect approach.
Drought Management Plan at national level is linked to RBMP at river basin scale by the fact that
there is a need of coherence between actions per basin. National strategy and instruments constitute
the doctrine whereas measures are the actions at river basin level.
Moreover, RBMP must be linked to other land management plans (town-planning, public roads),
especially soils management plans, in order to take into account the other management and planning
instruments that can influence the quantitative management, notably in arid environments .

C.1.1 - Integration of qualitative and quantitative aspects

Quantitative protection of water resources is closely linked to qualitative aspects. Reaching the
objectives for good ecological status would be very difficult or nearly impossible without properly
considering quantitative aspects. On one hand, quantitative actions are essential in order to
guarantee ecosystems (typical habitats, dilution, prevention of extreme situations) and on the other
hand, pollution diminishes available resources creating imbalances within the hydrological cycle
and causing conditions of water stress. But in term of compliance regimes, the good quantitative
status only concerns groundwater bodies.

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In this sense, an integrated protection of water resources is needed to achieve the good ecological
status. This approach is fully taken up by the Directive which considers the key role of quantitative
aspects in the recitals and especially in the following ones :
- RECITAL 19: …control of quantity is an ancillary element in securing good water quality and
therefore measures on quantity, serving the objectives of ensuring good quality, should also be
established.
- RECITAL 20 : The quantitative status of a groundwater body may have an impact on the
ecological quality of surface waters and terrestrial ecosystems associated to that groundwater
body.
- RECITAL 34 : For the purposes of environmental protection, there is a need for a greater
integration of qualitative and quantitative aspects of both surface waters and groundwaters, taking
into account the natural flow conditions of water within the hydrological cycle.
- RECITAL 41 : For water quantity, overall principles should be laid down for control on
abstraction and impoundment in order to ensure the environmental sustainability of the affected
water systems.
Even if the above mentioned recitals clearly show the need for a greater integration of qualitative
and quantitative aspects of both surface and groundwaters, the Directive doesn’t talk about specific
questions addressing quantitative aspects for surface networks.
The quantitative status of surface waters is considered in the WFD through the inclusion of the
hydrological characteristics of water bodies in the provisions for the definition of ecological status
(table 8).
Table 8 : Hydrological elements supporting biological composants
WATER BODY HYDROMORPHOLOGICAL ELEMENTS SUPPORTING
BIOLOGICAL COMPOSANTS
Hydrological regime:
Rivers - connexion to groundwater bodies
- quantity and dynamics of water flow
Hydrological regime:
- quantity and dynamics of water flow
Lakes
- residence time
- connexion to groundwater bodies

Regarding good status of inland water (rivers and lakes), the Directive says that “the hydrological
regime must be consistent with the achievement of the values specified for the biological quality
elements”.
As mentioned above quantitative aspects are directly and fully considered in the assessment of
groundwater status. A good status is achieved when the water level in the groundwater body is such
that the available groundwater resource is not exceeded by the long-term annual average rate of
abstraction. Accordingly, the level of groundwater is not sensible to anthropogenic alterations such
as what would result from :
• failure to achieve the environmental objectives specified in article 4 for associated surface
waters
• any significant diminution of the status of such waters
• any significant damage to terrestrial ecosystems which directly depend on the groundwater
body
Alterations of flow direction resulting from level changes may occur temporarily or continuously in
a spatially limited area, but such reversals do not cause saltwater or other intrusion and do not
indicate a sustained and clearly identified anthropogenically induced trend in flow direction likely
to result in such intrusions.

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In conclusion, even if the WFD focuses on the qualitative aspects, it stresses that the quantitative
aspects are essential for the achievement of good ecological status.

C.1.2 - Quality and quantity in RBMP

The Directive provides some clear indications about the way to approach the need to integrate
quantity/quality aspects. These indications are both included in RBMP and in the program of
measures.
As regards the RBMP, the Directive sets out that they consider the water bodies quantitative status
in the river basin general characterisation and in the evaluation (table 9). Moreover, quantitative
status considerations can play a role in other aspects covered by RBMP as the economic analysis or
the applications of exemptions in article 4.

Table 9 : River basin management plans

RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT PLANS

River basin management plans shall comprise the following elements :

1.1 A general description of the characteristics of the river basin district which includes an
identification of reference conditions for the surface water body types.
2. A summary of significant pressures and impact of human activity on the status of surface water
and groundwater, including an estimation of pressures on the quantitative status of water
including abstractions.
4.2 A map presentation of the results of the monitoring programmes carried out under those
provisions for the status of groundwater (chemical and quantitative).
5. A list of the environmental objectives established under article 4 for surface waters, groundwaters
and protected areas, including identification instances where use has been made of articles 4(4),
(5), (6) and (7), and the associated information required under that Article.
6. A summary of the economic analysis of water use as required by article 5 and Annex 3.
7.4 A summary of the programme or programmes of measures adopted under article 11, including a
summary of the controls on abstraction and impoundment of water, and reference to the
registers and identifications of the cases where exemptions have been made under article
11(3)(e).

C.1.3 - Quality and quantity and reference conditions

The definition of these elements, recognized by the Directive as essential for RBMP arrangements,
implies the evaluation of water resource availability and the consideration of quantitative aspects in
the definition of the reference conditions. For each surface water body type, the WFD requires that
type-specific hydromorphological and physicochemical conditions shall be established representing
the values of those elements for surface water bodies at high ecological status.
It is imperative to fully take into account quantitative aspects associated to the hydromorphological
elements supporting the biological ones. In other words, in certain circumstances (e.g. arid climates,
highly permeable soils, etc), quantitative aspects could play a crucial role in establishing the
reference conditions and in achieving the environmental objectives.

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C.1.4 - Quality and quantity and river basin balance

The integrated quali-quantitative approach is fully coherent with the logic of the hydrological
balance and the protection of a flow consistent with the GES (Good Ecological Status). The
definition of a balance, in fact, requires the assessment of inflow (natural flow and anthropic
discharges) and of the outflow (for civil, agricultural, industrial uses, etc) : the difference between
inflow and outflow must guarantee, on each homogenous stretch, a flow which protects the typical
biocoenosis of the water body considered.

C.1.5 - Quality and quantity in the programme of measures

As regards the measures, the WFD defines a programme of measures which includes “basic
measures” (minimum requirements to be complied with) and “supplementary measures” (designed
and implemented in addition to the basic measures).
For both, measures of quantitative protection of the water bodies are introduced. In article 11.3
(basic measures, table 10), controls are established over abstractions and impoundment, artificial
recharge of water bodies and measures to ensure that the hydromorphological conditions of the
water bodies are consistent with the achievement of the required ecological status.
The Directive defines a “non–exclusive list” of supplementary measures which aim to protect water
quantity both on supply and demand side.

Table 10 : measures of quantitative protection of the water bodies in article 11.3

Article 11.3
Basic measures are the minimum requirement to comply with and shall consist of : (…)
(e) control over the abstraction of fresh surface water and groundwater, and impoundment of fresh surface
water, including a register or registers of water abstractions and a requirement of prior authorization for
abstraction and impoundment. (…)
(f) controls, including a requirement for prior authorization of artificial recharge or augmentation of
groundwater bodies. The water used may be derived from any surface water or groundwater, provided that
the use of the source does not compromise the achievement of the environmental objectives established for
the source or the recharged or augmented body of groundwater. (…)
(i) for any other significant adverse impacts on the status of water identified under article 5 and Annex II, in
particular measures to ensure that the hydromorphological conditions of the bodies of water are consistent
with the achievement of the required ecological status or good ecological potential for bodies of water
designated as artificial or heavily modified. Controls for this purpose may take the form of a requirement for
prior authorization or registration based on general binding rules (…)

LIST OF MEASURES TO BE INCLUDED WITHIN THE PROGRAMMES OF MEASURES : PART B

The following enumeration is a non-exclusive list of supplementary measures which member states within
each river basin district may adopt as part of the programme of measures required under article 11(4): (…)
(viii) abstraction controls
(ix) demand management measures, inter alia, promotion of adapted agricultural production such as low
water requiring crops in areas affected by drought
(x) efficiency and reuse measures, inter alia, promotion of water-efficient technologies in industry and
water-saving irrigation techniques
(xi) construction projects
(xii) desalinization plants
(xiii) rehabilitation projects
(xiv) artificial recharge of aquifers (…)

Basic and supplementary measures must be selected with the aim to ensure a sustainable water
balance and the minimum flow supporting the ecosystems.

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C.2 - Social concerns

C.2.1 - Socio-natural dynamics in the context of water scarcity

Under conditions of any type of resource scarcity, economically and politically disadvantaged
social groups usually meet difficulties to sustain their livelihoods, their quality of life, and even
their very existence. The objective of this section of the document is to explore the undesirable
social impacts of water scarcity and the effect of its mitigation on our communities. By inference,
this specification embraces the concept of livelihoods as well as lives and therefore includes threats
to the economic viability of individuals and communities.
The number of citizens exposed to drought within the European Union is increasing. Figure 18
shows the relevant data for 2002.

Figure 18: Average number of people per km exposed to drought (UNEP)

Scarcity of water resources can affect a wide range of social indicators, perhaps the most significant
of which are:
• the affordability of water
• the public health
• the community cohesion
Recent and current EC funded research on the human and social dimensions to water stress and
water management is represented by the projects (many of which are members of the Human
Dimensions Cluster coordinated by the Harmoni-COP project) listed in the end of chapter III
references.

C.2.1.1 - Affordability of water

As resource managers seek to raise extra-capital for investment in new supply sources or improve
the efficiency of current systems, the delivered price of water can dramatically rise. The issue of
affordability, whilst of obvious concern to those working in the developing nations, has latterly
attracted increasing interest in Europe and the developed world (OECD, 2003). The literature on the
affordability of water in the context of privatisation (Rodriguez, 2004) and willingness/ability to

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pay (Merrett, 2002) has been full of lively deliberations in recent years and has also prompted a
wider debate on the human right to water (Bluemel, 2005).
Tariff structures in the developed world tend to reflect a desire that the basic human needs of water
and sanitation should be accessible to all members of society regardless of financial circumstances.
Where government has detached itself from influence over water pricing, or has set other
performance criteria above this social imperative, affordability is under threat and needs to be
regularly monitored although the phenomenon is not exclusively a problem for the water sector as it
is also clearly related to low incomes.

C.2.1.2 - Public health

Where water scarcity is driven by climate change, there can be significant impacts on human health.
Warmer, sunnier climates also encourage more recreational water use, leading to the increased
exposure of leisure users to waterborne pathogens. The additional risks to human health from water
stress mainly results from changes in the spread and activity patterns of pathogens and their
intermediate hosts. For example, drought can induce malaria outbreaks following drought years
(Chase et al., 2002) and recent research suggests that hemorrhagic fever may probably be
associated to drought events (Acuña-Soto et al., 2005).

C.2.1.3 - The community cohesion

At higher scales of social organization, water stress can give rise to economic disruption and mass
migration as agricultural systems fail. Loss of income (due either to the increased costs of securing
access to water or of lower crop prices) and loss of land value (perhaps due to desertification) are
obvious consequences of increasing water stress. However, this reduction in farming community
wealth has consequences for other businesses which rely on the trade and patronage of farmers. The
social, and often psychological, damage caused to farming families may well take several years to
materialize as they struggle to adapt to changing climatic, environmental and production pressures.
Working longer hours, delaying investment, selling stock, and taking on extra work off the farm
(sometimes leading to the involuntary separation of families), are all well recognized adaptation
mechanisms.
Scarcity conditions are also likely to raise new, or exacerbate existing, social tensions. Young
people develop very negative impressions of farming as a livelihood. The strain placed on farming
communities by water scarcity is often long-term and the end of a drought period rarely presages a
sudden return to full production and the restoration of income levels.

C.2.2 - Social impact of supply side responses

Supply side responses to water scarcity involve the increase of the volume of water available for use
(though not necessarily potable use). The social impacts of supply side measures are unlikely to be
as significant as those for demand side mechanisms, simply because consumers are largely unaware
of any change in the supply regime. There are, however, three exceptions to this situation :
• Firstly, the beneficiaries of projects which augment provision to an existing supply
network are those who already have access to the network. The social costs and benefits
of such schemes can be poorly distributed amongst communities. For example, urban
communities may benefit from a large inland desalinization scheme whilst rural
communities are blighted by distillate treatment and disposal sites.
• Secondly, although there are excellent european examples of reuse projects for
irrigation, industry and indirect potable uses through river and groundwater bodies,
there is a wide variety of social (and institutional) issues surrounding the recovery,
recycling and reuse of wastewaters. Whilst the technologies are well tested and

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economic conditions often favourable, societal concerns about the use of non-potable
water can hamper attempts to implement reuse schemes. In summary, studies have
identified that :
Communities across Europe are sensitive to water reuse issues unless they
understand their urban water cycle and have confidence in quality control. This is
more evident in the northern part of the continent than in the south even though many
large cities in northern Europe depend on indirect reuse for their freshwater resource
for potable treatment especially during dry weather flow.
Many corporate stakeholders are nervous about supporting reuse projects in the
absence of clear and legally binding water quality guidelines.
Use of a water recycling system where the source and application are located within
their own household is acceptable to the vast majority of the population as long as
they trust the organization which sets standards for water reuse. Using recycled water
from second party or public sources is less acceptable, although half the population
shows no concern, irrespective of the water source. This situation is different for
reuse in industry.
Water recycling is generally more acceptable in non-urban areas than in urban areas.
This disparity is more pronounced for systems where source and use are not within
the respondent’s own residence.
Willingness to use recycled water, particularly from communal sources, is higher
amongst metered households than non-metered ones, and higher amongst households
which take water conservation measures than those that do not.
The use of recycled water for irrigation is widely accepted by farmers who believe
them to be safer than river waters.
There are strong concerns about the sale of products which have been irrigated with
recovered wastewater, especially vegetables. Farmers can overcome resistance
through positive evidence from the consumers and the retailers that there will be a
market for the products cultivated with the recovered water.
The establishment of standards for the reuse and management of monitoring
programmes promotes confidence in reuse schemes.
• Thirdly, increasing water scarcity often leads to attempts to re-negotiate access or
distribution rights to water resources. Stakeholder requirements and claims to
legitimacy for those requirements will change as the resource becomes scarcer. Where
existing rights are threatened, the very definition of an equitable distribution may be
challenged and the spread of costs and benefits resulting from mitigation actions
questioned. Existing management structures are not always capable of supporting such
re-negotiation, particularly where there are competing uses.

C.2.3 - Social impact of demand side responses

Encouraging water conservation is perhaps the most obvious policy instrument available to help
professionals in their efforts to balance supply and demand. National and pan-national bodies tend
to favour approaches or mixes of instruments they promote (often informed by local cultural and
development considerations), although the overall effect of many strategies is that of a “carrot and
stick” approach. Such demand side approaches rely on a range of instruments and techniques which
can be divided into four broad categories :
• economic
• regulatory
• technological
• educational

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A recent review of societal responses to these policy mechanisms can be found in Gearey and
Jeffrey (2005).

C.2.3.1 - Economic category

Design and implementation of economic policy instruments in the water sector requires awareness
of the implications of such instruments and the impacts they may have on particular groups of users.
The essential role of water in the lives of humans and its cultural status in many societies need to be
respectively recognized and valued. Ability to pay for water, either as a commodity, a social good,
or an environmental resource, varies across communities and through time. This fact, when
combined to the nature of water as a primary good, raises issues of equity and fairness in water
allocation (Herbert et al., 1995) ; particularly as the volumes consumed by some types of water use,
such as drinking, are relatively inelastic to price. Availability of a reasonably priced supply of water
has also been linked to regional and national economic growth, particularly in the agricultural and
primary industrial sectors (Schama, 1995).
Evidence to support the view that economic instruments are effective in modifying water
consumption behaviour is variable. Although the application of simple pricing instruments such as
block rates has generated expected gross responses from domestic consumers, more detailed
pictures of response envelopes have been difficult to construct. Different groups of water users
clearly respond to economic instruments in different ways and at different times. Although many
studies have demonstrated a link between water price and consumption, results from a study carried
out in the Netherlands reported by Achttienribbe (1998) recently raised serious doubts about the
price elasticity of water consumption in different sectors. The motivation to save money (a financial
incentive) rather than to save water (an environmental incentive) has been demonstrated to be the
dominant driver for reactions to many conservation initiatives.

C.2.3.2 - Regulatory category

Regulatory based demand side measures can include mandatory and enabling legislation,
regulations, policies, standards and guidelines. They can be used to reduce institutional, legal or
economic barriers for a more efficient water use or to create barriers against unnecessary or
wasteful water consumption. Whilst the use of regulatory measures can generate a more predictable
and immediate effect on consumption patterns, there are a number of considerations to be taken into
account :
• Firstly, the perceived legitimacy of a regulatory measure can significantly influence its
impact. Communities will ask questions about whether the regulation is based on a
sound and broadly accepted understanding of the problem, and the credibility/
competence of the regulating body in setting the measure. They will also be concerned
about the fact that any price increase is not being used to take advantage of the situation
to increase profits.
• Secondly, many regulatory measures rely on effective monitoring and enforcement,
activities which in themselves are resource consuming.
• Finally, and as it is the case for any regulatory measure, evasion, deception, and abuse
will adversely impact the effectiveness of the instrument and challenge its credibility as
an effective policy instrument.

C.2.3.3 - Technological category

Technological instruments include structural or physical improvements to water supply and use
systems and installation of water efficient devices or processes (such as low flush toilets or low
flow showers, etc). Difficulties associated to technology based policy instruments typically concern

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the availability of complimentary knowledge and skills required for effective deployment. In
addition, new technologies cannot simply be located in our houses, streets and utility infrastructures
without some understanding of how they impact existing system performance. Public responses to
retrofit programmes (eg. supply and fitting of low volume cisterns) has been shown to be positive if
the equipment is offered for free and if the programme is high-profile and aggressively managed
(Sarac et al., 2002). However, initiatives may be rejected on aesthetic and practical reasons,
particularly if bathrooms or kitchens have recently been refurbished.

C.2.3.4 - Educational category

The education of water users through different contact routes and media is largely utilized to
modify water use behaviour and encourage voluntary water conservation actions. Often seen as the
core instrument for use in long-term conservation strategies (Grisham et al., 1989), educational
programmes make use of printed, video, and audio media as well as face-to-face methods.
Developments in the fields of participative planning and social learning have influenced the design
and execution of this type of water policy instrument as more consensual and community informed
approaches to water management have been developed. Indeed, although the term “education” has
traditionally been used to characterize this form of water policy instrument, there is increasing
impetus to use a term which better reflects the collaborative nature of the process (e.g.
“communication”, or “dialogue”; the latter of which being the preferred term here).
Dialogue, as noted above, is an instrument which encourages behavioural change. Consequently its
effectiveness is posited on the assumption that beliefs determine values, values determine attitudes,
and attitudes determine behaviour. However, the ability of attitudes to predict behavioural
intentions and overt behaviour continues to be a major focus of theory and research in psychology
and it is now generally recognized that although attitudes are relevant for understanding and
predicting social behaviour, many important questions remain unanswered. Indeed, many studies,
such as that conducted with specific reference to the water sector by De Oliver (1999) tell us that
none of these links can be taken for granted, and that measuring the causal process is itself a non-
trivial activity. These limitations to managing water use behaviour through dialogue have led to
calls for more targeted campaigns, greater public participation during the early stages of programme
design, best practice exemplarity to demonstrate the benefits of conservation and programmes
which generate a commitment to act.

C.2.4 - Social vulnerability and adaptation

Social vulnerability to natural hazards such as drought and water stress is a function of the ability to
predict the occurrence of the hazard, the resources available to cope with the hazard, the particular
features of the existing economic system, and the ability to adjust and adapt to changing conditions.
Whilst the resilience of social networks is often challenged by conditions of water stress, social
resilience can work to prevent degradation resulting from overexploitation of land in response to
drought. Recent advances in the theory of social adaptation has emphasized the ability (or inability)
of a social entity to cope with the increasing demands caused by water scarcity, describing a
second-order scarcity (Turton et al., 1999) of social resources which acts as a barrier to adaptive
change.
Before a solution can be offered to the problems of increasing water stress, we need to begin to
define what is individually and communally acceptable as response options and what the barriers
are to adaptation. One barrier may be convenience. Given that water supply in the many parts of the
world is universal and that there are few barriers to delivery, access couldn’t be easier. Low levels
of water metering and relatively low pricing, signal to the market that the product is cheap and
abundant. Asking people to change their consumption patterns needs to be correlated with an

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explanation about why a change is needed. Another barrier to adaptation may be awareness :
although people are aware of global warming, the uncertainty of predictions means that a
guaranteed prognosis cannot be delivered. A third problem might be the cultural significance of
water ; hygiene, health and prosperity are all linked to access to water – for some it represents
modernity at its highest apex. The goal is to identify what triggers need to be put in place before
individuals and communities accept their responsibility in cutting water demand. Without this shift
in attitude, policy targeted on individual and community consumption will face legitimacy
problems. The key to tackling individual and community consumption will be to recognize that
consumers are not homogenous groups : in the same way that market consumption is
heterogeneous, so is water use.
Indeed, the extent to which communities are able to adapt to increasing water scarcity has been
represented in a Social Water Stress Index (Ohlsson, 1999). This SWSI represents a society’s social
adaptive capacity in facing the challenges of physical water scarcity. It is calculated as the ratio of :
• A standard measure of water stress/scarcity, arrived at by dividing the amount of
annually available renewable water by population size, to
• the Human Development Index for each country. A higher value indicates a greater
degree of water stress.

C.2.5 - The cultural significance of water

Any discourse on water consumption is predicated on cultural understandings of water and its
institutional framework. In many countries the institutional framework is based on private property
rights – access to water “belongs” to a person or institution, whether private or public. There is no
universal access to water and the rights to water are not based on the needs but on legal entitlement.
This is not the place to review water rights but this brief outline helps to select the type of literature
that could inform further research. The work conducted by Aguilera-Klink et al. (2000) is
exemplary in this area : deconstructing concepts of water scarcity, the authors are able to build a
strong argument about what explains the development of a society’s water structure, what shapes
attitudes towards water and examine how consumption patterns become engrained within an
institutional framework. It does not only cover the way water is accessed and priced but also
highlights that perceptions of scarcity can create “panic consumption” leading to more acute
conditions of scarcity. By linking progress with water, consumption creates its own dynamism
cemented within power structures in society. This paper is one of the few to emphasize how power
relations and water have a direct effect on consumption levels. What is also made clear is how those
with a direct dependency on access to water have specific local knowledges (seasonal water flow,
depth of aquifer) but limited understanding of the holistic hydraulic process.
Water use, perceptions and attitudes to water and water governance adaptivity must include a
perspective on how water acts as a conductor of power and gender relations, how it becomes
representative of forms of knowledge and means of operating power/knowledge discourses. We
cannot talk about human behaviour without recognizing that we also need to talk about power.
Behaviour is learnt and is socio-cultural, we learn to adapt to our environment. Part of that process
is gaining knowledge and as a consequence, our actions help us move through the various networks
of power that exist in our society. Using power as a theoretical underpinning enables us to analyze
water as a vehicle of control rather than just as a social or economic good.

C.2.6 - Concluding comments

Although research into the social dimensions of water scarcity has increased (and its quality
improved) over recent years, effective knowledge exploitation is beset by two problems :
• Firstly, the knowledge base itself is dispersed and typically located within the confines
of a disciplinary community such as sociology or anthropology rather than with water

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management per se. It is thus difficult for water sector professionals to locate relevant
knowledge (in both terms of research findings and knowledgeable individuals). Possible
responses to this issue are difficult to envisage although dedicated publications or events
which provide an opportunity for commercial concerns to access contributions on the
human dimensions of water management would be of benefit.
• A second problem is that many organizations in the water sector are poorly equiped to
recognize and exploit the potential contributions of the “softer” sciences. Decades of
emphasis on engineering, technology and infrastructures has left its imprint on water
supply and management institutions to the extent that the only incentives to
understanding any human association with water is in terms of marketing (selling
people the products of engineering) and public relations (convincing people of the
benefits of engineering). However, the issues here go deeper than the educational
background of individuals. Studies of human behaviour or attitudes typically produce
results of low predictive power. However, this does not mean that they are of no value.
Research contractors need to identify the contribution of such studies before they are
executed and accept that they are more likely to ‘inform’ than ‘resolve’ a particular
problem.

The role the Water Framework Directive (WFD) could play in facilitating socially just and
equitable responses to water scarcity is worth noting. The simple fact that River Basin Management
Plans are to be prepared through a transparent and consultative process is important in this context.
Such forms of planning provide opportunities to anticipate scarcity conditions, scope possible
responses, rehearse arguments to support specific options and learn about other stakeholders
perspectives, concerns, constraints and policy preferences. Consequently, some of the tensions
discussed in earlier parts of this chapter will not happen.
The WFD, whilst inviting member states to “take into account the principle of recovery of the water
services costs”, avoids imposing full cost recovery as an economic principal for water services
provision. This will empower governance bodies by enabling them to support vulnerable groups
without compromising their commitment to the WFD ; a potential social safety net which could be
very useful under conditions of water scarcity – as discussed above.
Finally, article 14 of the WFD provides a mechanism for addressing social learning, participative
planning and gender issues. By extending the consultation franchise to previously unengaged
groups, article 14 facilitates inclusion and will give a voice to social concerns. The extent to which
such concerns will be acted on remains an open question. However, there is little excuse for social
concerns not to be registered and brought to the attention of decision takers.
The economic, environmental and social development of our communities co-evolves with the
availability and quality of water, and we need to enrich and deepen our understanding of these
relationships. Sustainable development is fundamentally about the adaptive capacity of the human
race. In relation to water, the broad objective should be to enhance adaptive potential in the context
of safeguarding water supplies, not only for human consumption but also in support of viable
ecosystems. People adapt and change at a faster rate than policies, technologies and infrastructures.
The challenge is to understand this potential as it impacts on water supply, and exploit it as a
beneficial tool for adaptive response.

C.3 - Economic profitability

With growing water scarcity and increasing competition between water-using sectors, the need for
water savings and more efficient water use has raised in importance in water resources
management. Improvement in the physical efficiency of water use is related to water conservation
through increasing the fraction of water beneficially used over water applied, while enhancing

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economic efficiency is a broader concept seeking the highest economic value of water use through
both physical and managerial measures.
Economic efficiency of irrigation water use refers to the economic benefits and costs of water use in
agricultural production. As such, it includes the cost of water delivery, the opportunity cost of
irrigation and drainage activities, and potential third-party effects or negative (and positive)
externalities (Dinar, 1993). Economic efficiency can be expressed in various forms, for example, as
total net benefit, as net benefit per unit of water, or per unit of crop area and its broader approach
compared to physical efficiency allows an analysis of private and social costs and benefits.
Economic efficiency at the basin scale seeks to maximize the net benefits of water uses in the whole
basin. The concept can take positive and negative externalities in water use, for example, among
upstream and downstream demand sites (irrigation systems), water productivity (output per unit of
water consumption), as well as physical efficiencies at the system level into account. In addition,
the concept can relate water uses across water-using sectors. However, this issue is not addressed
here (website ref 19).
Several writers (Kolderie, 1989 ; Wunsch, 1991 ; Ostrom et al., 1993) distinguish between the
responsability for “provision”, which might be government’s concern, and “production”, which
might be done by private or community actors. A clearer distinction is made between (a) “direct
provision”, which is the act of physical producing (constructing, creating, maintaining) and
delivering a service, and (b) “indirect provision”, ensuring that a service is available by setting
policy and service standards, coordinating, financing, enabling and regulating producers. As water
is a basic need for life, direct and indirect provision have to be realized with efficiency and equity
for a good allocation and management of water. Then the question of which type of service, public
or private, is the most adapted is very important. There is no universal answer to this question.
Every water system that proposes an efficient and equitable service can be performant. The choice
between a public and a private service has to be done by taking into account the advantages and
disadvantages of the service in accordance with the local context. However, co-management
between public and private sectors can be a good solution for “direct” and “indirect” provision.
Table 11 sums up the advantages and disadvantages of different water allocation mechanisms.

Table 11 : Water allocation mecanisms (Lallana et al., 2001).

Allocation
Definition Advantages Disadvantages Example
mechanism
Targets a water price equal to •
Avoids the tendency to • Difficulties in defining Irrigation in France
the marginal cost of supplying underprice water marginal cost itself as a Water is sold on the
the last unit of that water. result of problems in ‘binomial tariff’ basis.
Water supply charges typically • Could avert overuse The Société du Canal de
because prices would rise collecting sufficient
include information to estimate Provence designs tariffs
to reflect the relative with the objective that
• collection scarcity of water supplied benefits and costs
they reflect long-run
• transport to treatment plant • Can also be combined • Tends to neglect equity marginal capital costs in
Marginal cost issues
pricing • water treatment to meet with pollution charges or the peak period, operating
quality standards taxes • Requires volumetric costs only in the off-peak
• distribution to customers monitoring which is not period, and possible
always in place discharge reduction in the
• monitoring and enforcement. form of pollution fees.
Water charges may also include Thus the State subsidies
any social costs (or benefits), 50 % of all elements of
although they may be more the tariff.
difficult to calculate.
The government decides which • Tends to promote • Prices do not represent
water resources can be used by equity objectives, either the cost of water
the system as a whole, and ensuring water supply to supply or its value to the
Public/admi- allocates and distributes water areas of insufficient user
nistrative within different parts of that quantity; the physical
allocation system. • Often leads to waste
allocation of water among and misallocation of
The State’s role is particularly the users is independent
strong in intersectoral allocation, water
of the charge
as it is often the only institution • Often does not support

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that includes all users of water user participation.

resources, and has jurisdiction • The dominant incentive
over all sectors of water use. to comply is enforcement
by law.
• The structures or fees
for water often do not
create incentives for users
to save and use it more
efficiently.
The allocation of water is • The seller has the • Difficulties for
referred to as an exchange of opportunity to increase establishing the market:
water use rights, compared to a profitability measuring water, defining
temporary exchange of a given water rights when flows
quantity of water between • The buyer benefits
because water market are variable, enforcing
neighbouring users. Sometimes withdrawal rules,
it requires the intervention of encourages increasing
water availability investing in conveyance
government to create the systems, environmental
conditions necessary for markets • Empowerment of water degradation
to operate (defining water rights, users by requiring their
Water creating the institutional and consent to any • Third-party effects have
markets legal framework, investing in reallocation of water and to be identified and
infrastructure to allow water compensation for any quantified to take into
transfers) water transferred account the associated
costs in the exchange
• Provision of water process (pollution,
rights tenure to the water overdraft of water tables,
users etc.)
• Induces a shift towards
improved water
management and
efficiency in agriculture
Irrigation: farmer-managed • Potential flexibility to • Requires a very Communal irrigation
irrigation (by time rotation, adapt water delivery transparent institutional system
depth of water, area of land, patterns to meet local structure In Portugal (Vila Cova
shares of the flow). needs village), issues such as
Domestic-water supply: • Local user-based beginning and ending of
community wells and hand- • Administrative institutions can be limited the irrigation period,
pump systems. feasibility, sustainability in their effectiveness for losses in canals, travel
User-based and political acceptability intersectoral allocation of
User-based allocation requires time of water, user
allocation water because they do not
collective action institutions sequence, and night turns
with authority to make decisions include all sectors of are addressed via various
on water rights. The effect of users arrangements that involve
user-based allocation depends different community
on the content of local norms institutions.
and the strength of local
institutions.

APPENDIX 3

• Water reuse (B.1.1.6)

• Examples of pricing methods for irrigation in different countries (B.1.2.2)
• Cecina PRB : measures adressing water imbalances management

CHAPTER III – Long-term imbalances in supply and demand 108

Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

IV- COMMON PRINCIPLES (CONCLUSIONS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS)

In November 2003, the European Water Directors recognized water scarcity as a major issue for
water management and environmental protection. At the same time, they decided to establish a
drafting group within the WFD Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) in order to tackle this
topic.
The group has been working on a document providing definitions, exchange of experiences, and
possible actions in order to react on scarcity issues. This document will be submitted for
endorsement to the Water Directors by June 2006. In the context of recent drought events in Europe
during summer 2003 and the western Mediterranean region in 2004/05, the drafting group is
presenting key issues on drought and water scarcity for countries prone to such phenomena and for
consideration and discussion at the Water Directors meeting of november 2005 held in London.

A - THE LINK BETWEEN WATER SCARCITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

ISSUES

Unsustainable water management including water over-consumption and water pollution as well as
possible climate change effects in a water scarcity situation could result in severe impacts on nature
and society.
Inefficient drought and water resources management put aquatic ecosystems under higher stress.
Indeed, the lack of adequate water use planning leads to heavy overexploitation of rivers and
reservoirs in case of drought, which jeopardizes the survival of the associated fauna and flora. For
example, aquifer over-pumping to meet an increasing water demand or to mitigate drought effects
causes drops of the water table levels, affects wetlands, and, in coastal zones, dramatically increases
groundwater salinization. These issues also have an impact on water quality.
Therefore, measures to prevent and alleviate drought and water scarcity should be developed and
implemented in the context of WFD, as WFD places the integrity of freshwater ecosystems at the
core of water management.

B - THE LINK BETWEEN WFD IMPLEMENTATION AND WATER SCARCITY

MANAGEMENT

The WFD is not directly designed to tackle quantitative issues ; however, the directive can be an
instrument for addressing drought and water scarcity management. Indeed :
- the directive is a “framework for the protection of waters which prevents further deterioration”
(articles 1.a and 4)
- the directive contributes to mitigate the effects of droughts (article 1.e).
- water quantity can have a strong impact on water quality and therefore on the achievement of
good ecological status.
- a “good quantitative status” is required for groundwater ; a balance between abstraction and
recharge must be ensured. Furthermore, groundwater levels should not be subject to anthropogenic
alterations that might have impacts on surface waters.
For these reasons:
• When developing the WFD Programmes of Measures (POM) and associated River Basin
Management Plans (RBMP) (articles 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. Quantitative issues should, in particular, be taken into account when setting
the objective of “no further deterioration” of current status (articles 4.1, 4.5, 4.6 and 4.7).

CHAPTER IV – Conclusions and recommendations 109

Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

• Actions to manage water quantity (e.g. water scarcity) should be considered as “measures”
(basic/supplementary) when developing the WFD POM and associated RBMP (articles 11
and 13).
• When and where needed, a specific “drought management (sub)plan” should be included in
the WFD RBMP (article 13.5).
• Public participation (article 14) should also be organized around water scarcity management
issues, as required by the WFD.
Regarding derogations, “prolonged droughts” are introduced in the directive as force majeure
events. Therefore, clear definitions of what is understood by “prolonged droughts” will have to be
established.

C - FIRST ELEMENTS FOR A DROUGHT MANAGEMENT PLAN

The WFD aims to raise the standard of water quality and prevent further deterioration in quality
across all waters and wetlands. Member states shall implement the necessary measures to prevent
deterioration of the status of all bodies of surface and ground waters.
Realizing that the mitigation of the adverse effects of drought is an important objective of WFD is
also very important.
Analysis of the drought management policies in some countries today indicates that decision-
makers usually react to drought episodes through a crisis-management approach by declaring a
national or regional drought emergency programme to alleviate drought impacts, rather than
developing comprehensive, long-term drought preparedness policies and plans of actions that may
significantly reduce the vulnerabilities to extreme weather events. Drought planning evolves to risk
management.
A new conception of drought management is needed. A modern way to address these kind of
situations is mainly based on the following principles:
• Developing comprehensive long-term drought preparedness policies and action plans
may significantly decrease the risks associated to extreme weather events, reducing
vulnerability and increasing resilience to drought.
• It should include prevention – in order to reduce the risk and effects of uncertainty- and
mitigation – measures undertaken to limit the adverse impacts of hazards- strategies.
• The problem of drought requires a proactive management developing actions planned in
advance, which involve modification of infrastructures, laws and institutional
agreements and the improvement of public awareness.
• The drought management strategy should include sufficient capacity for contingency
planning before the onset of drought, and appropriate policies to reduce vulnerability and
increase resilience to drought. Effective information and early warning systems are the
foundation for effective drought plans, as well as effective networking and coordination
between central, regional, and local levels.
There is also a need to coordinate the drought-related activities, such as forecasting, monitoring,
impact assessment, response and recovery estimation and planning. This policy should also
incorporate incentives for all drought-prone regions to develop plans that promote a more proactive,
anticipatory approach to drought management. Lessons learnt from previous drought response
attempts need to be documented, evaluated and shared at all levels of government through post-
drought audits.
The drought is a complex phenomenon that involves social, economic, and environmental aspects.
From the water resources perspective, a proactive approach to drought is equivalent to strategic
planning of water resources management for drought preparation and mitigation. Such planning
consists of these two categories of measures, both planned in advance :

CHAPTER IV – Conclusions and recommendations 110

Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

a) Long-term actions, oriented to reduce the vulnerability of water supply systems to drought, i.e.
to improve the reliability of each system to meet future demands under drought conditions by a
set of appropriate structural and institutional measures. Alternative actions are :
- Water conservation and demand management, involving efficient use and resource
protection
- Educational programs
- Public information and awareness
- Research
b) Short-term actions, which try to face an incoming particular drought event within the existing
framework of infrastructures and management policies. They basically consist in contingent
plans. The objective is to limit the adverse impacts on economy, social life and environment
when a drought situation is developing. The primary components of short-term actions are :
- Data and continuous monitoring system (Drought Management Plan Monitoring)
- Impact assessment system
- Response system, requiring appropriate :
- Legal framework
- Organisational structure
- Measures and infrastructures

These policies must be linked to WFD. Therefore, contingency drought plans must face these issues
and establish clear, objective thresholds to implement these exceptional circumstances related to an
indicator system.
Temporary deterioration in the status of bodies of water shall not be in breach of the requirements
of the WFD (article 4 paragraph 6) when resulting from natural or force majeure cause, or in case of
a reasonably unpredictable event (“exceptional floods”, “prolonged droughts”), or due to reasonably
unforeseeable accidents, when all of the established WFD conditions have been met.
The conditions under which circumstances are exceptional or could not reasonably have been
foreseen, have to be stated including the adoption of the appropriate indicators and included in the
river basin management plan.
Summarizing the most remarkable conclusions, it is necessary to develop comprehensive, long-term
drought preparedness policies and action plans that may significantly reduce risk and vulnerability
to such extreme events. Key elements of this approach comprise :
• To build a long-term strategy to prepare for extreme events within water policies, including
public awareness, educational programs and research. It could be reached by reinforcing
coordination at European level to seek a transnational and transdisciplinary approach to
drought research, monitoring, forecasting and joint mitigation strategies.
• To prepare Drought Management Plans with pre-planned measures, as a strategy to mitigate
negative drought effects. The plan must include appropriate indicators and establish
thresholds to progressively initiate the actions.
• Drought Management Plans linked to WFD and incorporated into River Basin Management
Plans as supplementary plan, including :
- Indicators and thresholds establishing onset, ending, and severity levels of the exceptional
circumstances. In addition, thresholds of pre-alert and alert levels should be defined too.
- Measures to be taken in the pre-alert and alert phases in order to prevent deterioration of
water status.
- All the reasonable measures to be taken in case of prolonged drought in order to avoid
further deterioration of water status.
- All practicable measures to proceed with the aim of restoring the body of water to its status
prior to the drought event as soon as reasonably practicable.
- Summary of effects and measures taken and subsequent revision and updating of the
existing drought management plan.

CHAPTER IV – Conclusions and recommendations 111

Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

D - FIRST ELEMENTS OF ACTIONS FOR LONG-TERM IMBALANCES

MANAGEMENT

EU institutions, member states, and stakeholders should play a leading role in the implementation of
a new vision for the water resources management. This vision could be summarized as considering
that fresh water is a scarce and valuable resource that should be carefully managed in the long-term
perspective by respecting the following conditions. In more details, this implies :
• For functioning freshwater ecosystems to fulfil basic socio-economic and environmental
needs. Indeed, prioritizing the uses, including the environmental “use”, is a necessity in
order to achieve sustainable water management on a multi-criteria basis (usefulness,
quantities consumed, season, etc). The important point is to affirm the principle that
drinking water supply is the priority usage.
• Promotion of participation, partnership and active cooperation for sustainable water
management at local, national, and international scale :
- Water management should be defined at a local scale in order to be adapted to local
environmental, social and economic context. This local scale is proposed to be the river
basin scale of the WFD.
- Involvement of the concerned local actors in water management projects should be
considered as a key issue for the sustainability of the projects.
• Knowledge is a key aspect for a sustainable management of water resources within
River Basin Management Plans. Sound knowledge about water availability and quality
as well as its real use by different users is required. Water management must be realistic
and produce sound estimates of water needs by aquatic ecosystems and human activities
that depend on water.
• Where necessary (in case of resources overexploitation), authorities should implement a
combination of measures for both demand and supply sides for all users in a coherent
river basin programme to restore the equilibrium. The role of administrative institutions
should be stressed to improve the equilibrium between supply and demand management.
Thus institutions should deal with the human and economic resources to effectively cope
with this challenge.

In the core of possible measures to be set up, some are emerging due to their important impact on
the biggest water consumers and to their short-term effects :
• For demand-side measures :
-Changes in water consumption promoting subsidies, especially of the CAP.
-Reduction of leakages in the distribution networks.
-Improvement of irrigation technologies by improving agricultural management,
optimizing soil water utilisation and irrigation, and setting up new programmes of
practical research in order to reduce water consumption (e.g. crop rotation, genetic
variety).
-Identification and implementation of potable substitution opportunities where
appropriate quality of reclaimed water can be used for non drinkable applications to
increase drinkable water availability.
-Evaluation of the advantage of setting up water banks and quota systems.
-Setting up an adapted tax and price policy system to encourage investments or demand
approach management development, and to develop financial mechanisms to internalize
external costs and anticipate profits on water savings.
-Development of education and awareness campaigns
• For supply-side measures :

CHAPTER IV – Conclusions and recommendations 112

Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

-Preservation of the functioning of natural catchments and restoration.

-Improvement of an efficient use of existing water infrastructures such as dams or inter-
basin water transfers.
-Setting up an obligation for using a costs / needs / advantages / alternative solutions
analysis for every project of new water resource creation.
• Evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed measures.

Cost-effectiveness analysis has a role in the prioritization of the measures addressing water scarcity
and drought. Demand-side measures have to be prioritized except if the cost-analysis indicates the
contrary.
There is a need for a deeper analysis of some measures mentioned above to be implemented in the
RBMP / Drought Management Plan, in the status of DMP (supplementary plan along the line of
article 11) and specific requirements of the WFD in term of “appropriate” indicators and measures.
The analysis of specific measures (such as wastewater reuse and desalination) and of the link with
climate change has to be developed. There is also a need for further development of coordination at
EU level and for development of knowledge on specific issues, among which :
- Alternative and saving water technologies should be promoted and further explored ; guidelines
and standards should be required in order to improve and promote coordination and information
exchanges.
- Links with other EU instruments for agriculture should be deepened.
- Communication about the socio-economic benefits of achieving the WFD “good status”, also
for regions and/or countries affected by drought and water scarcity.
- Need for further research in the harmonization of methods for the estimation of water resources
and future water demand development in space and time, as well as research in environmental
impact assessment ; finally coordination of activities among researchers, experts and agencies.

CHAPTER IV – Conclusions and recommendations 113

Water Scarcity Management in the Context of WFD June 2006

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Turton, A.R. and Ohlsson, L., (1999) Water Scarcity and Social Adaptive Capacity: Towardsan
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supplies. UKWIR, WATEREUSE Foundation & AWWA Research Foundation. Draft Report Ref.
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UKWIR, WATEREUSE Foundation & AWWA Research Foundation 2004 Framework for
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WWF (2002): 7 reasons to oppose the SNHP. Madrid.

WWF (2003): Análisis y valoración socioeconómica de los trasvases del Ebro previstos en el Plan
Hidrológico Nacional Español. Madrid.

WWF (2003): El Trasvase Tajo-Segura: Lecciones del pasado. Madrid.

WWF (2003c): The Real Cost of the Transfers: Analysis and socio-economic assessment of the
Ebro transfers included in the Spanish National Hydrological Plan (SNHP). Madrid.

WWF (2005): Los mercados de aguas y la conservación del medio ambiente: Oportunidades y
retos para su implementación en España. Madrid.

WWF and EEB. 2005. EU Water Policy: Making the Water Framework Directive work. The
quality of the National transposition and implementation of the WFD at the end of 2004. Brussels,
Belgium.

WWF. 2003. WWF’s Water and Wetland Index. Critical issues in water policy across Europe.
Madrid, Spain.

Websites
http://www.soas.ac.uk/Geography/WaterIssues/OccasionalPapers/home.html
http://www.dams.org
http://www.us.es/ciberico/archivos_acrobat/sevillaponenpalomera.pdf.
http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/
http://www.fundacionmbotin.com/CTAguas.htm#publi
http://www.birdlife.net/datazone/sites/?action=SitHTMDetails.asp&sid=6937&m=0
http://www.mpl.ird.fr/hydrologie/divha/pdf/tuni/merg1/pres/projmerg.pdf
http://www.gwpmed.org/products_documents/country_reports/tunis.pdf
http://www.harmonicop.info/index.php
http://www.fao.org/ag/AGL/AGLW/aquastat/aquastat.html
http://www.ermesambiente.it/ermesambiente/acque/servizio_acqua/
ref α : www.envirowise.gov.uk
ref a1 : http://www.fundacionmbotin.com/CTAguas.htm#publi
ref a2 : http://www.birdlife.net/datazone/sites/?action=SitHTMDetails.asp&sid=6937&m=0
ref a3 : http://www.mpl.ird.fr/hydrologie/divha/pdf/tuni/merg1/pres/projmerg.pdf
ref a4 : http://www.gwpmed.org/products_documents/country_reports/tunis.pdf
ref 1 : http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wastewater/
ref 2 : http://www.csiro.au/files/files/p2oq.pdf
ref 3 : http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/publications/techpublications/techpub-8e/artificial.asp
ref A : http://www.waterdesalinization.com/technolo.htm
ref B :
http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Testimony&Hearing_ID=1508&
Witness_ID=4289
ref C : http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/publications/en/rh-pr/tech/03-100-e.htm
ref D : http://www.ciwem.org/water/domestic/index.asp
ref E : www.eca-water.gov.uk
ref F : http://www.ciwem.org/water/industrial/index.asp
ref G : http://www.ciwem.org/water/suds/index.asp
ref H : http://www.ciwem.org/water/potable/index.asp

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ref G : http://www.ifen.fr/publications/DE/PDF/de104.pdf
ref H : http://www.ciwem.org/water/irrigation/index.asp
ref I : http://www.ifpri.org/divs/eptd/dp/papers/eptdp72.pdf

Socio-natural dynamics in the context of water scarcity (C.2.1). References of projects :

Advisor - http://ecoman.dcea.fct.unl.pt/projects/advisor/
Aquadapt - http://www.aquadapt.net/
Aqualibrium - http://www.aqualibrium.de/en/main.htm
Euromarket - http://www2.epfl.ch/mir/page18246.html
Euwareness - http://www.euwareness.nl/
Firma - http://firma.cfpm.org/
HarmoniCOP - http://www.harmonicop.info/index.php
Intermediaries - http://www.irs-net.de/intermediaries/
MantraEast - http://www.mantraeast.org/
Merit - http://merit-eu.net/
Mulino - http://siti.feem.it/mulino/
Prinwass - http://users.ox.ac.uk/~prinwass/index.shtml
RiverDialogue - http://www.riverdialogue.org/
Slim - http://slim.open.ac.uk/page.cfm
WaterStrategyMan - http://environ.chemeng.ntua.gr/wsm/
MEDIS - http://www.uni-muenster.de/Umweltforschung/medis/
AquaStress - http://environ.chemeng.ntua.gr/aquastress/

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