PR: Water utilities invest on biodiversity - World Environment Day, 5th June 2010

On the occasion of the World Environment Day (WED) “Many Species. One Planet. One Future.”, EUREAU, the European Federation of National Associations of Water and Wastewater Services, underlines the increasing endeavors the water and wastewater utilities are making all over the European Union to improve the quality of the wastewater discharges.

Furthermore, huge efforts on investments in the collection and treatment of rainfall are needed. The better performance of the wastewater collection and treatment systems during dry weather make visible the impact of the untreated waste and rain water in periods of heavy rainfall.

Some ongoing human activities have drained half of the world’s wetlands, speeding up the process of extinction of some species. Therefore, to protect the aquatic ecosystem and respect the natural flows, the water and wastewater utilities have decided to protect those wetlands in order to preserve biodiversity and to complete the treatment of the wastewater treatment plants.

“For the water utilities the protection of the environment is of great importance”, states Klara Szatkiewicz, President of EUREAU. The European Commission estimates that about 152 billion euro¹ were invested in waste water infrastructures in the period 1990-2010 on the implementation of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (1991)(UWWTD). “In the areas where the investment has been done according to the rules, there is a clear improvement on the diversity and quantity of aquatic species” highlights Szatkiewicz.

Notes to the editor:
- EUREAU is the European Federation of National Associations of Water and Wastewater Services. Our members provide sustainable water services to more than 400 million people in Europe. They reflect the full diversity of the European water services sector and represent public, private and mixed operators. As the focus point of a European water network, EUREAU represents a unique concentration of technical, scientific and managerial knowledge and practical experience in water services and is the voice of water and wastewater operators in Europe

- The UWWTD concerns the collection, treatment and discharge of urban waste water and the treatment and discharge of waste water from certain industrial sectors. Its aim is to protect the environment from any adverse effects caused by the discharge of such waters. (Urban Wastewater Treatment)

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