Water Resilience Strategy, Contribution to the Call for Evidence

March 2025

Contribution by the European Water Movement to the Calls for Evidence

Water Resilience Strategy
Water Efficiency First Principle

The European Water Movement (EWM) is an open, inclusive, and pluralistic network whose goal is to reinforce the recognition of water as a common good and a fundamental universal right. We are united in our fight against the privatization and commodification of this vital resource and in our commitment to constructing a public and communal management system for water, founded on the democratic participation of citizens and workers. The EWM was one of the promoters of the 2012/13 European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Right2Water” on the Human Right to Water.

The last EEA report on Europe’s State of Water 2024 has highlighted frightening figures on both water quality and quantity in surface waters and groundwaters, where some of the main drivers have been clearly identified.

Although we recognize various positive elements in the Water Resilience Strategy initiated by the European Commission, we believe that some critical issues remain unaddressed. These shortcomings compromise the strategy’s effectiveness, democratic and participatory nature, and, equally important, the preservation of water resources.

Key principles and recommendations

1. Water as an inalienable common good

Water must remain a public good, free from privatisation, commodification and financialisation. This requires public ownership, transparent and participative management, and a legal status for water operators under public law, ensuring they cannot be purchased by private entities. Any financial benefits must be reinvested in water services, including infrastructure maintenance (e.g., reducing leakages which rates exceed 60% in some areas), and cannot be distributed as profits.

Addressing ageing networks requires reinvesting budget surpluses in water services and maintaining the public nature of these services, ensuring cost recovery does not include profits. Public-public cooperation must be guaranteed over public-private partnerships, as past experiences show the latter often undermine the general interest.

Water scarcity and repeated crises are accompanied by growing risks of conflict over the use of water, and therefore increased risks of financialization and water speculation. All the pre-cited measures are necessary in order to guarantee against possible entering of big capitals in the overall water cycle and water resources management.

Experience confirms that in several cases, entrance of big private companies sooner or later voids the content of the provisions initially agreed upon, that aim at preserving water resources. Promotion of market mechanisms and competition in the water industry is worrying and unacceptable. Water isn’t for profit and can’t be commodified.

2. Defending the Human Right to Water and Sanitation

Universal access to water and sanitation must be guaranteed, ensuring affordability and sufficiency. Over 16 million EU citizens still lack access to basic drinking water services, making immediate action imperative.

As highlighted by the United Nations’ General Comment 15 on the Right to Water, access to water is a fundamental human right, and must be prioritized in respect to the principles of availability/sufficiency, quality, affordability, continuity and acceptability. The UN recommends that everyone should have access to at least 50 to 100 liters of water per person per day to meet their basic needs for drinking, cooking, cleaning, sanitation, and hygiene. Access to water for nature and human consumption to fulfill vital needs should be prioritized above all other uses, and allocation mechanisms should reflect this hierarchy. Water disconnections are prohibited.

A differentiated tariff structure should ensure affordability for households (3 to 5% of total household income according to the UN) while discouraging excessive consumption in industries and agriculture. Tariff structures shouldn’t only focus on volumetrics, as ageing and deficient water infrastructure give distorted figures of real consumption, especially affecting already vulnerable and marginalised communities and rural areas. Access to sufficient water for both human consumption and ecosystems must be guaranteed before applying widely efficiency targets to domestic uses.

3. Prioritizing water preservation first and efficiency then

Water is a primary resource for life, ecosystems, and essential productive sectors such as agriculture and energy, yet limited. Therefore, it can’t be understood and managed as energy. However, increasing droughts, floods, pollution, and growing water demands threaten Europe’s water resources, leading to conflicts’ risks.

EU institutions must prioritize water safeguarding and preservation over mere efficiency. Public ownership and strict enforcement of existing water regulations and laws are essential to ensure long-term sustainability.

4. Adapting water management to climate change

Climate change adaptation must include protecting water and sanitation services and accelerating the transformation of agricultural and energy sectors, and any kind of industries, towards sustainability. Rising global temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events have led to more frequent and severe droughts, floods, and water shortages, threatening both human populations and ecosystems. To ensure resilience, investments must be made in climate-proof infrastructure and Nature-based Solutions such as wetland restoration.

Water availability for nature and for domestic and personal use must take precedence over productive uses, particularly in times of scarcity. Emergency response mechanisms should ensure equitable water distribution, prioritizing vulnerable populations and critical public services. In that line, industrial and productive sectors must monitor and report on their water footprint, both in quantity and quality, along the full value chain and make it available to the public.

Water management should remain under the framework of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) to prevent over-extraction and protect ecological and human needs.

5. Strengthening pollution standards and controls, water quality protection

Water pollution from chemical inputs, PFAS, microplastics, and other contaminants must be urgently addressed. Policies should support the agro-ecological transition and implement without delay the phase-out of hazardous substances under existing and upcoming regulations.

Furthermore, monitoring systems must be strengthened to track pollution sources and contamination levels in surface and groundwater. Industries and agricultural sectors must be held accountable through stricter regulations on waste disposal, nutrient runoff, and pesticide use. The polluter-pays principle must be strictly enforced, ensuring that private entities bear the costs of remediation for pollution they cause.

Where possible, Nature-based Solutions and restoration and protection of natural water ecosystems, such as wetlands and riparian zones, must be prioritized to naturally filter pollutants and improve overall water quality. Additionally, regulatory bodies must ensure full transparency regarding water pollution data, making such information accessible to the public to enable citizen participation in safeguarding water resources.

6. Reducing water consumption in industrial sectors

Water-intensive industries, including electronics and AI-related activities, must be subject to strict consumption limits to prevent ecological and hydrological imbalances. As other regulatory frameworks already offer subsidies for irrigation technologies for agriculture, the Water Resilience Strategy should in no case provide more public funding or more flexibility for grey water storage to that purpose. As highlighted by the European Court of Auditors in 2024, CAP Plans relying on investments in irrigation infrastructure haven’t proved effective on reducing total water consumption.

7. Integration of water in all relevant policy areas

The principles of water sufficiency, quality and efficiency must be integrated into all relevant EU policy frameworks, including climate change adaptation policies, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Nitrates Directive, the Clean Industrial Deal, the Critical Raw Material Act, the Circular Economy Package, the REACH revision, the revision of the list of Priority Substances under the ESQD, and any other sectoral policies (AI e.g.). Water resilience and sustainability must be treated as cross-cutting issues that influence agriculture, industry, energy, and urban planning.

To ensure coherent and effective water management, the integrity of existing environmental regulations, such as the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the Groundwater Directive (GWD), and the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD), must be maintained and reinforced. Any policy reforms must align with these frameworks to avoid regulatory inconsistencies that could weaken water protection measures. Additionally, the EU should develop binding mechanisms to ensure that water considerations are embedded in all major policy decisions, preventing sectoral policies from exacerbating water stress or pollution.

The fundamental principles of access to information, access to justice and public participation must also be duly ensured.

8. Ensuring water for peace

Water must never be used as a geopolitical tool or a weapon of war. EWM reaffirms its unwavering support for affected populations and echoes the UN’s “Water for Peace” appeal. European institutions must take responsibility in limiting conflicts, reducing precarity, and preventing the marginalization of vulnerable communities.

Water security for all (humans and nature) requires a fundamental shift towards cooperation over competition, protection over exploitation, and equity and equality in water governance. A public-centered approach must drive water governance, ensuring sustainable management and prioritizing the common good over private profit.

To achieve this, we urge the European Commission to:

- Adopt a vision recognizing and protecting water as a fundamental human right, a common good, an ecosystem and a heritage vital to all life forms: ensure public ownership and address growing risks of water privatisation, commodification and financialisation;

- Strengthen enforcement of water protection laws;

- Foster cooperation and innovation among public authorities, public companies, and knowledge institutions as the only sustainable and viable path to addressing water challenges;

- Drastically tackle industrial and agricultural water over abstraction to restore the water cycle, enforce the polluter-pays principle and ensure full transparency;

- Ensure that proper water and environmental protections are in place, as Europe’s long-term economic competitiveness and prosperity only makes sense on a living planet.

Water is not a commodity; it is a shared responsibility. The future of Europe’s water security depends on bold action that places the public interest above market forces. The European Water Movement calls on the European Commission to integrate these essential principles into the Water Resilience Strategy to ensure a just, sustainable, and water-secure future for all.

Download our contribution here.