EU countries losing battle against water pollution

The vast majority of Europe’s rivers, lakes and estuaries have failed to meet the European Union’s minimum target for “good status”, according to a new European Environment Agency “state of water” report.

Only 40 percent of surface water bodies surveyed by the European Environmental Agency, or EEA, were found to be in a good ecological state, despite EU laws and biodiversity protocols.

England was one of the poorer performers to emerge from the report, which studied 130,000 waterways. The report said higher population densities and more intensive agricultural practices had contributed to the result.

The EU’s environment commissioner, Karmenu Vella, said there had been a slight improvement in freshwater quality since 2010. “But much more needs to be done before all lakes, rivers, coastal waters and groundwater bodies are in good status,” he said.

“Tackling pollution agriculture, industry households requires efforts from all water throughout Europe.”

The EU’s water framework directive aims to protect human health, water supply, ecosystems and biodiversity from and joint users and was supposed to oblige EU countries to achieve a good ecological status for their waterways by 2015.

But their failure threatens the EU’s 2020 biodiversity goals, said Andreas Baumueller, WWF Europe’s head of natural resources.

“This report shows that we are nowhere (near) halting biodiversity loss by 2020,” he said. “It is just another symptom that we will miss the targets set by heads of states. The legislation is there in the form of the EU’s Water Framework Directive, but the political will is clearly lacking to make it work on the ground.”

Mercury contamination was one of the most common problems, with overuse of pesticides, inadequate waste treatment plants and tainted rainfall all contributing to the results.

Hans Bruyninckx, the EEA’s executive director, said: “We must increase efforts to ensure our waters are as clean and resilient as they should be — our own wellbeing and the health of our vital water and marine ecosystems depend on it.”

The 2020 UN Biodiversity Convention will be held in Beijing. China has unveiled a guideline to enhance ecological and environmental protection and win the battle against the pollution of air, water and soil.

The guideline specified targets that China expects to achieve by 2020 and beyond. China aims to see more than 70 percent of its surface water to be drinkable by 2020, while the share of polluted surface water should be controlled within 5 percent. A target is set for 70 percent of its offshore area water to be of good quality.