EurEau welcomes the conclusions on the Water Resilience Strategy (WRS) adopted by the Council on Tuesday 21 October. Member States have chosen to support and reinforce key messages from the WRS, published by the European Commission in June.
In particular, we strongly support the Council’s call to address and prevent water pollution at the source, explicitly mentioning excess nutrients and PFAS as priorities. The multiplicity of pollution pathways means that end-of-pipe treatment cannot, by itself, resolve water pollution issues. It would be neither realistic nor fair on customers to expect water services to bear that burden alone.
The Council conclusions rightly point out that water resilience is a prerequisite for ensuring Europe’s food security, competitiveness and crisis preparedness. Despite this, as the Council points out, investment needs remain considerable across the EU and will be increased by new requirements under the revised Drinking Water and Urban Wastewater Treatment Directives. We call on Member States to follow up their call to mobilise funding for water infrastructure with action at the EU, national and sub-national levels.