Progress report for
The European Water Sector driving the SDGs
Achievement at a glance
1.Promote the principles and objectives of the Water Decade for Action as a clear development of progress and sustainability.2.Promote dialogue and internal work in the different EurEau work commissions to seek adapted solutions and achieve the challenges of water and climate change, in a European environment of collaborative work with the agents involved.
In light of the sheer amount of challenges and opportunities, we set up a new Joint Working Group on Energy and Climate to stimulate the discussion on this topic. We also ran a webinar on Greenhouse Gas emissions in the waste water sector.
3.Work together with the national water associations of each European country, to publicize the objectives of the 2030 Agenda.
Across Europe, access to drinking and wastewater services is very good, with around 96% of people having access to drinking water services and 87% of people are connected to a public wastewater network in the EU27. Nonetheless, we fully support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 6 of ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Maintaining and upgrading infrastructure will be key to delivering this goal in particular. The water sector is improving its investment to ensure that its infrastructure is robust enough and fit-for-purpose to deliver safe water and sanitation to all. We work with the EU institutions to ensure the financing of the infrastructure necessary to deliver effective water services. Water service providers coordinate their activities with other stakeholders.
4.Promote a European innovation platform that serves as a liaison point for the different water operators and national associations, in order to stimulate research and be at the forefront of the sector.
The EurEau Information Sharing Platform was set up in 2022 to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, information and solutions between EurEau member associations across all 33 EurEau member countries. It is open to our experts and their colleagues and promoted in our newsletter and meetings.
5.Continue with the focused work of the EurEau work commissions, where cross-cutting and vertical issues that have an impact on compliance with the SDGs are discussed.
The water services sector has the ambition to play a front-running role in Europe’s journey to building climate-neutral, circular, smart and resilient society. Our path to achieving this is outlined in our Enabling Factors paper.
https://www.eureau.org/resources/publications/eureau-publications/7478-ambitions-of-the-water-sector-enabling-factors/file
We are also in the process of updating out strategy to achieving our goals, which will be discussed at our General Assembly in May 2024 before being finalised and published.
We also work on many legislative files that affect people across Europe, from the Drinking Water Directive, the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, as well as Environmental Quality Standards.
6.Work so that the objectives proposed by the United Nations become a reality for European citizens.
We work on legislative files that make a difference to people everywhere, from the water they get in their taps (Drinking Water Directive), how their wastewater is treated and returned to the environment, to maintaining the affordability of water services.
Next Steps
Mariano BlancoBeneficiaries
All European National Associations for water and wastewater management, and also all the utilities belonging to the National Associations.
EurEau members supply 500 million people with 44.7 billion m³ of clean drinking water annually, while 450 million people are connected to a waste water collection network and 435 million people are connected to one of over 18.000 waste water treatment plants.
Actions
Related to our Commitment 1 (Promote the principles and objectives of the Water Decade for Action as a clear development of progress and sustainability) the objectives are:1)Advance sustainable development.
2)Energize implementation of existing programmes and projects.
3)Mobilize action to achieve the 2030 Agenda.
The principles are:
1.Facilitating access to knowledge and the exchange of good practices.
The EurEau Information Sharing Platform was set up in 2022 to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, information and solutions between EurEau member organisations. It is open to our experts and their colleagues.
2.Improving knowledge generation and dissemination, including new information relevant to water-related SDGs.
We regularly host webinars to promote the exchange of expertise amongst colleagues. These have covered water topics in so far as they help ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, covering topics such as leakage management, provision of treatment chemicals, Greenhouse gas emissions in both the drinking and waste water sectors, vocational education.
EurEau was involved in the work to develop the Blue deal, with Oliver Loebel Secretary General having an advisory role in this in the EESC: Declaration for an EU Blue Deal | EESC (europa.eu)
3.Pursuing advocacy, networking and promoting partnerships and action.
The water services sector has the ambition to play a front-running role in Europe’s journey to building climate-neutral, circular, smart and resilient society. To achieve this, water services work with local and EU level policy makers to maximise the latest innovative technologies and practices, by digitalising their operations, exploiting their full energy efficiency and renewable energy generation potentials, and recovering nutrients and materials from waste water streams and drinking water treatment.
These are the five success factors we must achieve to set the sector on the path to change. They are accompanied by short check-lists for regulators and policy makers.
1. Enabling regulatory framework
2. Ensuring long-term funding and resources
3. Attracting a competent workforce and obtaining societal recognition
4. Developing innovative solutions and increasing motivation to change
5. Avoiding pollution at the source.
Our path to achieving this is outlined in our Enabling Factors paper.
https://www.eureau.org/resources/publications/eureau-publications/7478-ambitions-of-the-water-sector-enabling-factors/file
4.Strengthening communication actions for implementation of the water-related Goals.
Much EU legislation to better protect people and the planet has been passed or is being processed since the last European Parliament elections - the Drinking Water Directive, the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, and legislation covering agriculture, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. One other cornerstone of water legislation – the Water Framework Directive – will need to define its post 2027 ambitions, and policy makers must decide whether to extend its reach to protect water resources. We support such a move.
We need a robust 360° strategy at European level to ensure that water services are protected across all areas. In our vision for our water’s future. You can read more in our Vision Paper for the 2024-2029 European Policy makers, supported by an online social media campaign.