Published: 22 Mar 2011
Our demand for water and wastewater discharges,
often have a substantial impact on the quality
and quantity of freshwater resources. On
World Water Day, 22 March, the European
Environment Agency (EEA) and partners presented
a new and improved version of the web portal
Water Information System for Europe (WISE).
Europe hosts several
million kilometres of rivers and streams
and more than a million lakes. Each body
of water has its own characteristics and
specific environmental problems. As highlighted
by the theme of this year's World Water
Day, water is also the life elixir of our
cities. It keeps the 'urban metabolism'
running like for every other ecosystem or
organism. Good water management is indispensable
for cities as both too little and too much
water and pollution can put entire urban
systems at risk.
In the past, with growing
populations and increasing demand for water,
Europe's larger cities have generally relied
on transporting water from surrounding regions.
Now Europe needs to tackle its demand for
water including the efficiency of water
use.
WISE, which was made
publicly available for the first time on
22 March 2007, brings together all the information
collected from Member States at EU level
and on surface and ground water, including
data on bathing waters.
The new version of the
web portal offers easy access to water statistics
compiled by Eurostat and model-based services
developed by Joint Research Centre (JRC)
in addition to the water policy website
maintained by DG Environment and the Water
Data Centre maintained by the EEA. Interactive
maps also provide a user-friendly visualisation
of the status of water bodies as reported
under the Water Framework Directive (WFD).
Water legislation in
the EU
The key EU legislation on water, the Water
Framework Directive, establishes a broad
management approach based on river basin
districts. River Basin Management Plans
include Programme of Measures to achieve
‘good status’ in 2015, aimed by the Directive.
