World Water Day

On International Water Day, we must go beyond the usual clichés associated with these commemorations.

We recall the recent devastating floods, but it will not be long before we are once again speaking about drought and desertification… A few months ago, in a debate at the European Parliament’s Economic and Social Committee, I presented the following principles, which I consider fundamental to ensuring access to water and sanitation:

• Restoring the Good Ecological Status of aquatic ecosystems, in line with the Water Framework Directive (WFD), must be a priority. This is also essential to reduce water costs for vulnerable populations and to avoid expensive chemical treatments.

• In the short and medium term, we must provide the necessary resources to guarantee access to safe drinking water for all: pressurised systems, chlorination, and adequate sanitation.

• The river basin should be the unit of management, and transfers between basins should be avoided. Where basins are shared between different countries, they should be jointly managed to prevent political conflicts.

• It is necessary to develop democratic water governance that ensures human rights and environmental sustainability, grounded in transparency and citizen participation.

• In cases of overexploitation, it is essential to establish public control over resources to ensure sustainability and prioritise drinking water supply.

• Regarding the allocation of public and private water rights, it is necessary to ensure that these rights are exercised in proportion to the actual availability of the resource, through transparent processes, avoiding the commodification of water.

• It is not possible to guarantee access to water under any climate change scenario if the continuous intensification of agriculture persists, given its impacts on both the quantity and quality of water resources, especially during periods of scarcity.

I want also to highlight CITAB’s involvement in the monitoring of surface water resources, in accordance with the WFD, and in the restoration of degraded aquatic ecosystems.