Environment agency gives brutal verdict on rivers and lakes

The European Environment Agency (EEA), the EU body which has the job of providing reliable independent information on the environment, is brutal in its verdict on the state of Europe’s rivers and lakes.

Once a vital source of drinking water for humans and animals, the industrial revolution has turned them into "a convenient way of transporting waste to the sea, destroying the biodiversity of thousands of kilometres of waterways, harming human health, and polluting coastal waters", according to the Copenhagen-based agency.

While efforts to reduce pollution from industry and sewage have gone some way to reversing the trend, "the agricultural sector…has not made as much progress".

WWF says the problems posed by agriculture to water are threefold.

In large parts of southern Europe water scarcity is the main environmental worry, with water diverted to supply farms in hot, dry regions. A WWF drought report this summer found that irrigated agriculture was responsible for 65% of total water consumption in the Mediterranean - rising to 80% in parts of Spain.

The environmental report accused EU farm subsidies of encouraging a shift from traditional rain-fed crops, like lemon and olive trees, to heavily irrigated maize and sugar beet.

WWF says water diversions and damming to supply farms has also destroyed natural habitats in Europe. The Odeluca dam in Portugal and the Spanish national hydrological plan are just two recent planned water diversion projects to have angered environmentalists.

Agriculture is responsible for substantial water pollution, especially in northern Europe. Nitrates from manure, together with chemical fertilisers, can run off into drinking water and have been found to contaminate the Baltic Sea.

Elizabeth Guttenstein of WWF says: "We want to encourage governments and land-use planners to… make sure rivers are considered as whole systems, instead of just looking at site specific problems - for example on a farm. This will allow rivers to follow their natural courses and flood where necessary".

The 2000 EU water framework directive, she explained, encouraged this idea of looking at the river basin as a whole. "But it will be quite a big challenge to make this work."

The European Environment Agency (EEA), the EU body which has the job of providing reliable independent information on the environment, is brutal in its verdict on the state of Europe’s rivers and lakes.