On Tuesday, organisations around the world celebrated World Water Day. This year, the theme of the UN’s International Day was ‘Water & Jobs.’

Environment groups took the opportunity to warn that many EU countries are not taking their responsibilities related to water seriously. World Water Day also marked the deadline for EU Member States to submit their Second River Basin Management Plans to the European Commission, though half of the states missed this deadline for at least some of their territory.

Balázs Horváth, Senior Policy Officer for Water and Soil at the European Environment Bureau,  said, “Half of EU Member States have missed the deadline for adopting updated river basin management plans [Including UK exclave Gibraltar] and many failed to bring waters into good condition by the end of 2015, as required by the EU Water Framework Directive. This legislation is a good tool for progressive water management, but a lack of ambition at national level is slowing down much needed implementation.”

Horváth said that intensive farming is continuing to pose significant problems, adding, “Climate change projections show that water scarcity will get worse in the EU in the coming decades. However, instead of moving towards more efficient use of water, many Member States want to extend the use of irrigation thereby putting an increasing number of EU citizens at risk of water scarcity. Also, while water pollution has decreased in many sectors, greater use of fertilizers and pesticides means this not the case for farming.”

A recent French study on the cost of pollution found that while water pollution has decreased in many sectors, this is not the case for farming, and in Spain there has been resistance to the Second River Basin Management Plan for the Ebro River, as this would allow more agricultural irrigation, reducing the amount of water going to the Ebro Delta nature reserve in a water-stressed part of the world. Campaigners have accused the government of ignoring EU guidance in drawing up their plan for the Ebro.  

Major new analysis published last month showed that at least two-thirds of the global population - over 4 billion people - live with severe water scarcity for at least one month every year. The research also found that 500m people worldwide live in areas where water consumption is double annual rainfall, meaning they rely on unsustainable use of groundwater aquifers.

In January the World Economic Forum rated water crises as one of three greatest risks of harm to people and economies in the next decade, alongside climate change and mass migration. Various areas in the EU, including leading cities like London, were highlighted as living dangerously in terms of their water use.