The Water Framework Directive and Europe

In 2000 EU launched the Water Framework Directive (WFD) which sets up the future frame for regulation and protection of water resources in Europe comprising lakes, streams, coastal waters and groundwater. The WFD summarizes much of the European experience on pollution, water quality and ecosystem management, and it represents a new and comprehensive way of source-to sink thinking where the primary goals are to achieve the desired quality of the water resources, to ensure that there is enough clean water for different uses, and to avoid disasters like flooding and droughts. The WFD prescribes that “good ecological quality” and/or “good chemical quality” should be reached in the water bodies no later than 2015. A management system is setup where all regions in Europe is divided into water districts and for each of these districts water management plans are to be developed. There is particular focus on the control of emission of contaminants from industries, households, and agriculture to water bodies and detailed action plans and monitoring systems should be developed in order to achieve the 2015 goals. The WFD are now being implemented in all European countries – the detailed rules are being laid down in national legislation and regulation.

The WFD will bring a regulatory effect on all sources which affects the quality of water bodies. Agriculture has a very pronounced effect on the quality of European surface waters and groundwater, and hence the WFD will boost the development of improved systems for quantification and regulation of pollution from agricultural sources, such as leaching of nitrate, phosphate, pesticides and veterinary drugs from arable soils, ammonia volatilization from animal production facilities and the spread of microbial pathogens and toxins via water. An in depth understanding of hydrology, water chemistry and biology, soil chemistry and physics is needed as a foundation for establishment of models and tools which can be used in future regulation of land use. This will enable land users and planners to calculate the maximum of pollutant load (e.g. fertilizer or pesticides) which can be allowed for particular land areas in order to meet the quality goals set up for the different water bodies. Hence, the WFD is very demanding in terms of mechanistic understanding of natural processes and their quantification. The WFD links to a number of other directives, e.g. REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals), the habitat directive, and in 2006 a groundwater directive is planned. Also a soil quality directive may appear. The WFD is the most comprehensive system for water management applicable on a large scale ever developed – and it integrates almost all pollution activities caused by man. In EnvEuro we will make use of the directive in different ways: i) water quality as an integrated measure of “loads” from natural resource uses such as agriculture, forestry, and mining, ii) development of trans European cases on how the WFD is implemented in different ecosystem and climatic regions, iii) development of quantitative tools for quantifying distribution and mass balances of pollutants, definition/determination of measurable goals and setup of monitoring schemes, and iv) environmental technology for remediation and improving the quality of polluted water bodies and soil.