EurEau newsletter - edition 8 - November 2016
EurEau newsletter - edition 8 - November 2016
UN COP22 - Resilience of the water sector to climate change: recommendations for water services and policy makers
We sent our report on the water sectors resilience to climate change together with our recommendations for the sector and policy makers to the UN in advance of the COP22 talks that will begin this week. You can find the full report .
IWA
IWA has decided to play a role in the implementation of the SDGs in relation with water and especially SDG 6 on Water and Sanitation target by 2030.
European Commission work programme
The European Commission adopted its work programme for 2017 (CWP) that attaches to water high political priority. The Commission will put forward a legislative proposal on minimum quality requirements for reused water for the second quarter of 2017. They also confirmed their plans for the legislative revision of the Drinking Water Directive scheduled to take place in the last quarter of 2017.
You can find more information .
Public consultations
The European Commission has launched two consultations.
The first is on policy options to set minimum quality requirements for in the European Union. The deadline for answering this consultation is the 27 January 2017.
The second is for the evaluation. The deadline for this consultation is the 28 January 2017.
OECD - best practices and case studies on water governance
The OECD Water Governance Initiative is developing a database with local, basin, national and international practices to reach the standards behind the . In doing so, it strives i) not to duplicate what already exists; ii) to be relevant to end users from a policy, decision-making and practitioner perspective; and iii) to be sufficiently pragmatic and accessible to serve the purpose at the least cost.
The OECD invites you to fill in a of 10 questions that should take no more than 10 minutes of your time by 9 November 2016.
The survey seeks to scope the expectations and needs of partner institutions, networks and stakeholders when searching for water governance practices. The results will shape the process (of collecting practices), the content (of practices) and the final output (possible online format).
Water reuse
Pier Paolo Abis attended the Ad-hoc Task Group on Water Reuse meeting (Common Implementation Strategy of the Water Framework Directive) on behalf of EurEau. This meeting was held in Madrid (Spain) on 17-18 October. An update of the technical development of minimum quality requirements for water reuse in irrigation and groundwater recharge was presented by the Joint Research Centre. Despite our support on the initiative on Water Reuse, we cannot support this report that is not clear enough, does not justify the choices made for the proposed requirements and does not consider enough the existing European experience in water reuse nor the economic aspect of the implementation for the proposed requirements.
Drinking Water Directive
The European Commission identified four areas of the DWD where improvements are possible in a future Drinking Water Directive.
1. Parameters
2. Risk-Based Approach
3. Information to consumers
4. Materials and products in contact with drinking water
EurEau submitted its comments on the ‘user guide’ on the materials and products in contact with drinking water.
Dr Claudia Castell-Exner, EurEau Vice-President, prepared the EurEau comments on the WHO background documents on the parameters of the Annex I of the DWD.
Micropollutants
Dental Amalgam – Mercury Regulation
The ENVI Committee of the European Parliament adopted its report on the Mercury Regulation. EurEau fully supports the ENVI position calling for the ban of the dental amalgam by 31 December 2022.
EurEau hopes that the Council of the EU can match the EP ambition. Read more .
Fertiliser Regulation
The European Parliaments different committees are developing their work plans and the Fertiliser Regulation report should be ready for spring 2017. Cadmium content seems to be the major issue for certain MEPs as there is less cadmium in Russian phosphate rocks than in North African. If the Fertiliser Regulation would open the market to the phosphorus contained in sewage sludge regardless of its form (compost, digestate, struvite or ashes), we could certainly have a sustainable source of phosphorus for them. EurEau is working to bring this message to the European Parliament and the Council.
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs)
Member States are mobilising to force the European Commission to revise the definition for EDCs proposed last June. At the Environmental Council of 17 October, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark asked to debate the definition proposed by the European Commission at Council level, and not only in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed where it has been discussed so far. This request was also supported by France, Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg. At the same time, the European Commission is working on a revised text for the next meeting of the Pesticides Standing Committee in November. We will continue to follow this important issue for the protection of water resources.
Out and about
EurEau President Bruno Tisserand attended the IWA in Brisbane, Australia and presented at two workshops for EurEau. The first was on ‘Affordability mechanisms’. Bruno noted that EurEau probably collectively has the most wide and diverse experience and know-how with a lot of different affordability mechanisms already in operation all over Europe.
The second session was on ‘Benchmarking’ and focused on the pros and cons of it as a tool for regulators. The resulting debate ended in a 50/50 vote on benchmarking.
Over the coming weeks, Bruno will be at on 8 November. This event is hosted by EurEau member Utilitalia. He will also attend the on 28-29 November and travel to the exhibition in Cremona, Italy on 2 December.
EurEau Vice President Claudia Castell-Exner represented EurEau at the workshop on ‘Agriculture and water’ which was held under the Slovak presidency in Bratislava on 24 October 2016. The presentations and the outcome of this workshop will be available on CIRCA. The results of the workshop will be presented in the next meeting of the Water Directors at the end of November.
The CIS WG Groundwater meeting was on 25-26 October 2016 in Bratislava where Claus Vangsgård and Rob Eijsink attended on behalf of EurEau.
The Groundwater Directive will be ten years old soon. The European Commission will host a seminar to mark this on the 12 December 2016.
Hello and congratulations!
Anna Pomassl from OVGW, one of our Austrian members, is seconded to the EurEau Secretariat for five weeks starting from October 18.
We will host a welcome reception for our new Secretary General, Oliver, on Monday 14 November. Oliver will meet with members and EU policy makers and influencers.
Helle Katrine Andersen from Danva was elected as a Board Member of IWA. Congratulations Helle Katrine.
Important dates
If you have events happening in your country, let us know, especially if you would like to get the EurEau perspective by having us represented at it!
8 November 2016: Greet de Gueldre will speak at the 12th EWA Brussels Conference .
8-11 November 2016: .
15 November 2016: in Barcelona.
2 December 2016: Bruno Tisserand will speak at ‘Water resources in Italy and Europe’ in Cremona, Italy on the topic of ‘Europe: problems strategies and challenges in the water sector’.
12 December 2016: EurEau will present at the European Commission workshop on water safety and security.
15-17 May 2017: conference in Vienna.
6-9 June 2017: in Liege, Belgium
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