On Water Protection

The European Union must:

-       Protect water and aquatic environments

-       Give the management of water the status of a public utility. 

Protect water and aquatic environments

The inventory established within the framework of the national rules and following the European directive both reveal severely polluted and degraded waters and aquatic environments in most countries of the Union. Nitrates, phosphates, pesticides, heavy metals … heavy industry and development make water unfit for human consumption and alter, even destroy, biological life. The over consumption of water, in particular for agricultural irrigation, creates situations of shortage. The massive use of water for industrial purposes (dams, pumping, cooling of thermal power stations and nuclear power plants, gravel pits, waterproofing of major beds but also the disintegration of earth in catchment basins ) severely damaged rivers. 

• In all member states Europe has to impose identical standards characterizing the good ecological state of the water in surface waters , aquifers and coastal environments .

• The binding of these standards really has to take into account the preservation and the restoration of a well-balanced biological life. These must not be dictated by the economic choices of the agricultural or industrial lobbies.

• The polluter pays principle must be applied with rigor and sanctions should be promptly taken against states not making enough effort to adhere to European standards.

• Respectful agriculture, in particular organic farming must be supported. Intensive farming methods must not be encouraged.

• The short term abolition of the use of pesticides must be sought.

Give to the management of the water the status of public utility.

Big industrial groups have developed in Europe in the field of treatment, distribution and purification of water. These big groups, which also act in most of the domains concerning the essential services to the population, try to monopolize the management and the purification of the water, responsibilities which normally fall within the remit of local authorities. As the Council of the EGP meets here in Berlin, a global demonstration is being held in Brussels concerning the issue of the public management of water.

The European States must :

-       Refuse the privatization of the services of water and purification.

-       Protect and develop a management of water, that is public, decentralized, fair and democratic.

-       Recognize the access to water as a right for every person and watch that the fixing of a price scale for water allows for the practical application of this right.

While large parts of the populations of the countries of the South suffer from the shortage and the pollution of water, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund condition their help to the privatization of water in the countries that are helped. The Water Industry  multinationals of water, the most aggressive of which are on the European territory, want in this way  to share the markets of Water in the Third World countries out among themselves .

Europe must recognize water as part of humanity’s global heritage and access to water as a right for every human being.

• Water must be removed from the agreements of the GATS and its public management has to be the rule.

• The access to water and its purification in as a right for every person has to be the object of disinterested cooperation in the form of “Public Partnerships /Public” between the North and the South. These will aim at giving the helped populations the means to manage their problems of water and purification themselves as soon as possible.

• Europe has to urge the states of Europe to dedicate at least 0.7 % of their GNI to actions of development in the countries of the South, in particular in the field of water and its purification and to urge national governments in developing countries to give water and sanitation higher priority in their budget.