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.

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Lyon, April 4-6 2024

Water for all, Water for Peace. At its annual meeting, the European Water Movement reaffirms the public and democratic governance of this vital resource, to be preserved as a common good against any privatization, commodification, war and grabbing.

In front of environmental, social and political emergencies, natural patrimony and water resources must be preserved through prevention and protection. In the face of scarcity, drought and flooding, guarantee of water for everyone must have priority over excessive or illegitimate industrial or agricultural use. It’s imperative to restore disturbed/destroyed ecosystems, and the quality of water dramatically polluted by chemical inputs, PFAS, microplastics, among others. To this end support to the agro-ecological transition must be assured and strict measures must be adopted regarding the use and dumping of toxics.

Implementation of the human right to water and sanitation for all requires the exclusion of water from liberalization, commodification, financialization and grabbing. Governance of water must be public, transparent and participative, with an active role of citizens and workers. Supported and accompanied by public-public partnerships, it must assure affordability, quality of services and investment in infrastructures and maintenance to reduce network leakages.

Countries that are in the process of joining the EU, especially the Balkan ones, must not be sacrificial zones. Their water bodies are part of the European water system and must be preserved by the risk of devastating mining projects; EU neighborhood cannot be reduced just to a source of extraction of critical materials.

The European Water Movement is extremely concerned about the present state of war and crescendo of conflicts where water plays a key role. Water cannot be used as a geopolitical tool, or worse, as a weapon of war, as in Palestine, Syria-Iraq, Ukraine, Turkey and other regions. The European Water Movement reaffirms its unwavering support for these populations and their refugees. It asks for an immediate ceasefire on all fronts of war and joins the UN’s “Water for Peace” appeal.

It expresses also concern about the increasing militarization of the society and demand the stop and an active contrast to the criminalization and discrediting of movements defending the commons and fundamental rights and, more in general, of dissent and freedom of information and speech.

The above instances have been expressed in an open letter to the EU institutions, to the elected representatives and to the candidates in the next European elections, asking for an immediate resuming of the Water Resilience Initiative, articulated on such points.

10 February 2025

Open letter from the European Water Movement to Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Jessika Roswall, European Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resilience, and Dubravka Šuica, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean

The European Water Movement (EWM) and its members, together with the European Ecology Movement for Kurdistan (Tev-Eko), urge the European Commission to end its guilty silence facing the humanitarian and ecological drama currently unfolding in North and East Syria as a result of Turkish military aggression targeting the predominantly Kurdish civilian population and the Tişrin dam on the Euphrates river.

Turkey uses water as a weapon against Turkish, Syrian and Iraqi Kurds for years

In addition to using water as a weapon against the Kurds and their allies in Syria, Turkey is also waging an undeclared water war in transboundary river basins (Euphrates, Tigris) to impose its political hegemony on the concerned countries of Syria and Iraq.

Tev-Eko environmentalists, many of whom are members of the Kurdish diaspora in Europe, have documented these long-standing practices by Turkey (see statement of Tev-Eko).

During the negotiations for Turkey's accession to the European Union, the Turkish government at the time claimed to have adapted its water policy to that of the EU. EU water policy includes concerted river basin management, upstream-downstream solidarity, fair sharing of water between different uses, protection of aquatic environments, etc. Turkey does not apply this water policy at all, quite the contrary. EWM is therefore surprised that the European Commission has never made any comments to Turkey, even after the bombing of the Tişrin dam. The Tişrin dam provides water for the production of drinking water, agricultural irrigation and the production of electricity, all of which are essential to the lives of several hundred thousand people. Its destruction would have incalculable social and environmental consequences, as Tev-Eko explains, threatening the lives of future generations and the ecosystems of a large area downstream.

EU migration policy is contrary to human rights and ineffective in eradicating Islamic terrorism in Europe

Since 2016 the European Union has paid Turkey to prevent Syrians fleeing Hafez Al Assad's regime from taking refuge in Europe. In return, the EU turned a blind eye to the war crimes against the Kurds in Turkish-Kurdistan when several cities like Cizre, Sirnak and Nusaybin have been destroyed and half mio. people have been displaced in 2016, and atrocities perpetrated by the Islamist militias of the Syrian National Army (SNA) against the people unable to flee the mainly Kurdish populated Afrin region after its passage under Turkish control in 2018. As we have seen, this has not prevented Islamist attacks in Europe.

The same situation, but worse, is likely to occur again with the attack by Turkish army and its allies of SNA on the region of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. The takeover of this democratically ruled region by the Turkish army and SNA will lead to the death of thousand of civilians, displacement of at least hundreds of thousand people as well as the release of Daech (Islamic State) prisoners, most of whom have European passports.

The European Commission must act in accordance with the values of the European Union

The European Commission, whose President recently solemnly reaffirmed the values upheld by the European Union, has a duty to put them into practice at all times. These European values are currently being flouted by Turkey in North and East Syria, and this will also have dramatic consequences within the Member States of the European Union in the not too distant future. We therefore urge the European Commission to do everything in its power to stop Turkey's military aggression in Syria.

contact : hello (at) europeanwater.org

Lisbon, 21 March 2024

DECLARATION - 22 MARCH 2024 - WORLD WATER DAY

At a time when humanity is experiencing great dangers, where new conflicts and military aggressions persist and emerge and the predatory action of the great powers in the dispute over natural resources is increasingly aggressive, the theme chosen by the United Nations to celebrate World Water Day, which is celebrated on 22 March, "Water for Peace", could not be more topical.

Of course, it's not water itself that creates peace or triggers conflicts, but rather its unequal distribution and control, the root of co-operation and conflict over it. By prioritising the interests of multinationals and financial groups, and the consumption of those who can afford it, rather than the needs of the people, workers, small farmers and the poorest, global water management is failing to fulfil the UN's vision of "Water for Peace".

The injustices in this area continue to be manifold: more than two billion people do not have access to drinking water at home; 3.6 billion do not have access to sanitation; 80 per cent of all wastewater is disposed of without treatment.

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