Water Crisis in Europe: Let’s Act Now!

Water is the essence of life. Due to recent droughts triggered by the climate crisis, water reservoirs are at a historical low. Europe is facing its worst drought in 500 years [1]. This means more fires and, in the long term, desertification.

More than ten years ago, the United Nations recognised the human right to water. But water is an increasingly scarce resource. Today’s droughts are exacerbated by excessive water use in intensive agriculture, mining, tourism and other sectors. Corporations have contaminated, wasted and privatised water for their exclusive benefit.

Water scarcity is now a reality in Europe. The situation is alarming all over the continent, especially in the Iberian peninsula and other Mediterranean countries. We urgently need democratic control on such an essential resource as water.

Therefore, we call upon European governments to take the following measures:

• Enact legislation protecting water resources from excessive use
• Control and cap the use of water by commercial sectors
• Mandate sectors with high water consumption, such as intensive agriculture, tourism, energy and industry, to have sufficiency plans to reduce consumption in case of crisis
• Create a European fund to support local governments to re-municipalise the control of water

[1] Source: Global Drought Observatory