We all know that the amount of water available in the world is finite. And as the world’s population continues to grow, water use is growing even faster, so much so that it is calculated that a third of the world’s population lives in water-stressed countries and, by 2025, this is expected to increase to two-thirds.

However if water were to be consumed in a more efficient manner, there would be more than enough available, in total, for everyone’s basic needs which, according to UN recommendations, should be a minimum of 50 litres of water a day for drinking, washing, cooking and sanitation purposes.

Climate change is expected to make the situation worse. Some areas will admittedly benefit from increased rainfall, but many others are likely to be users.

The EU has so far been on the forefront to combat climate change. However, it is not enough to fight it – we have to adapt to it, so that its adverse impacts on people, the economy and the environment are cushioned off. As part of its wider climate change adaptation efforts, the European Commission has recently put forward a set of recommendations and policy options to combat water shortages.

Due to global warming, the European Commission predicts that by 2030, heat waves will become more frequent and severe and will hence cost the EU many more billions of euros. The Commission calculates that, over the last 30 years, over 100 billion euros have been spent on efforts to deal with droughts and heat waves.

It is true that Europe is, by and large, considered as having adequate water resources. However, water scarcity and droughts are increasingly becoming commonplace. In 2003 alone, one of the most widespread droughts affected over 100 million people and about a third of the EU land area, costing some EUR8.7 billion.

The term drought refers to an extended period of months or years when a region suffers from deficiency in its water supply, generally because it receives consistently below average precipitation. The effects can however, also be worsened by man and it can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region. Water scarcity then is the result of a long-term imbalance with demand in excess of available water resources.

In fact, in the Green Paper launched in June on adaptation to climate change, the Commission has drawn attention to possible further deterioration of the water situation in Europe if temperatures keep on rising and if no action is taken to mitigate the situation. The Green Paper sets out four lines of priority actions to be considered: 1. early action to develop adaptation strategies in areas where current knowledge is sufficient; 2. integrating global adaptation needs into the EU’s external relation and building a new alliance with partners around the world; 3. filling knowledge gaps on adaptation through EU-level research and exchange of information; and 4. setting up a European advisory group on adaptation to climate change to analyse coordinated strategies and actions.

Against this backdrop, last month, the European Commission presented a Communication containing a set of policy options to be taken at European, national and regional levels to address water scarcity and droughts and raises issues to be taken into account to safeguard availability of water for all human, economic and social activities. All proposals aim to move the EU towards a water-efficient and water-saving economy.

In Malta, we should look at this Communication with particular attention since our small island is highly vulnerable to water scarcity. In fact, it is worth knowing that Malta is classified as water-stressed together with nine other European countries being Cyprus, Bulgaria, Belgium, Spain, Malta, FYR Macedonia, Italy, UK, and Germany.

Rising water demands in Malta have inevitably led to increasing levels of production and ground water resources have been exploited beyond their sustainable yield resulting in water shortages. Salinity levels in groundwater and, ultimately, tap-water, have risen to unacceptable levels for human health, and in some cases agriculture and industry. Increasing levels of pollution, mainly from agro-chemicals, have also caused a deterioration in groundwater quality, resulting in unacceptable concentrations of nitrate compounds in tap-water for certain settlements. To try and curb groundwater extraction and the poor quality of tap-water, the Maltese government has resorted to large scale desalination by Reverse Osmosis, but this also comes at an energy cost.

Back to the Commission Communication, on the basis of the ‘user pays principle’ regardless of where the water comes from, the Commission wants to see higher water pricing as a means to put an end to endless losses or waste. This is in line with the Commission’s policy to use market-based instruments to address environmental concerns. With respect to the impact of higher water prices on the more disadvantaged sectors of the population, the Commission believes that private households should, irrespective of their available financial resources, have access to adequate water provision.

The Commission also wants Europeans to start using less water. Thus, the Communication gives high importance to stricter metering requirements and water-saving devices on showers, sinks and toilets, as it is estimated that up to 40 per cent of the EU’s water resources are wasted.

The proper implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is also crucial according to the Commission, since it introduces a model of water management based on geographical areas and at the same time requires Member States to impose, by 2010, water pricing policies in order to encourage consumers to use water resources more efficiently (Article 9).

It is important to point out that the Communication does not propose any new laws. Nonetheless, it puts forward a number of recommendations, including better land use planning for agriculture and tourism, new drought management plans and increased use of water saving technologies in buildings.

The Communication will now be informally discussed in September during the Environment Council and a possible ministerial resolution is expected in October.

Ronald Mizzi is Research Analyst, Forum Malta fl-Ewropa