Water use in the EU

BriefingInfographic April 2016

EPRS | European Parliamentary Research ServiceAuthors: Dessislava Yougova and Eulalia ClarosMembers’ Research ServicePE 581.983

Less than 1 More than 1 and less than 5 More than 5 and less than 10 More than 10

Available water resources - 20141000 m3 per capita

Fresh water withdrawals % of total resources

15-25%

More than 25% 5-15%

Less than 5%

1

2002 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

LU*IT

LVAT

PT

CZ

MT FISK

SEHU

UK

LTEL

EEFRDE

BE NLES

SIRO

DKCY

PL

BGHR

Latest available �gures:

*Not including water used for agriculture

IE*

Renewable fresh water resources are defined as the annual average flow of rivers and restocking of aquifers resulting from precipitation. This corresponds to the theoretical yearly amount of water actually available to a country at a given moment. Fresh water withdrawals as a percentage of total renewable water resources give an indication of the pressure on water resources.

Water stress is steadily increasing, as a result either of droughts – a temporary decline in water re-sources due to low rainfall – or situations of water scarcity, where demand exceeds the level of sus-tainable use. Assessment of the global use of water resources is hampered by the lack of established standards, and conventional measurements may yield diverging results. The European Environment Agency assessment of pricing of water as a cost-recovery tool and a means to promote efficient use of resources concluded there was a lack of harmonised concepts across the EU.

Data source: FAO-Aquastat

Water use in the EU

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Data source: FAO-Aquastat

Imports & Desalinated Water

Exports

Waterwithdrawal Water

discharges

Reuse

The freshwater cycle

Seeking an additional measure to relieve water stress, the European Commission launched a public consultation on water reuse in December 2014. Monitoring of freshwater withdrawals, water pricing and water-related business models were identified as possible contributions to solving the problem.

637

557

521

507

453

450

410

345

297

282

180

174

170

163

146

131

127

116

84

719 74

5

LU

838 85

7

867 91

0

1 23

2

1 24

1

SKDK MT HR CY UK CZ LV SE PL RO DE AT SI HU FR BE NL ES LT BG EL PT IT EE FI

0

300

600

900

1200

1500

Evolution of water withdrawal per capitam3 per inhabitant

2012 except: UK - 2011; HR, FR, DE, NL, ES, SE - 2010; BE, BG, CY, RO - 2009;IT - 2008; EL, LT, PT, SK - 2007; FI - 2006; AT, LV, MT - 2002

2002, except: DE - 2001; PT - 1998; AT - 1997; PT - 1995

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Water use in the EU

0

20

40

60

80

100

Agriculture

Industry

Municipal Water

IELUHRMTUKDKSKLVITCZSEROSIATPLFRBGESDEHUELBENLCYPTLTFIEE

Water withdrawals by sector

Municipal waterIndustryAgriculture

Less than 2.4

Between 2.4 and 2.6

Between 2.6 and 3

Between 3 and 3.2

More than 3.2

Water footprint - 2008 1000 m3 per capita

Household water footprint Distribution by consumption sector

Food, drinks and tobaccoClothing and footwearHousing, fuel and powerHousehold goods and servicesHealth and educationTransport and communicationsRecreation and cultureRestaurants and hotelsOther goods and services

Water withdrawals by sector are present-ed in this chart as a percentage of total withdrawals for the latest available year, as detailed in the map on page 1.

Withdrawals of water represent the annu-al quantity of self-supplied water used by each sector. Agriculture includes water used for irrigation, livestock and aquacul-ture purposes, whilst industrial uses also include the dairy and meat industries and industrial processing of harvested agricultural products. Municipal water withdrawals are primarily for the direct use of the population and are usually cal-culated as the total water withdrawn by the public distribution network. The ratio between net consumption and the wa-ter withdrawn can vary from 5 to 15% in urban areas and from 10 to 50% in rural areas.

The concept of water footprint refers to water used to produce the goods and services required to satisfy the country’s final demand, regardless of the country where this water was actually used. It is presented by consumption category and includes the water used directly by households.

% of total withdrawals

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Data source: FAO-Aquastat

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Data source: Global resources Use and Pollution

Turkey meat Eggs

Bovine meatApples

Potatoes

Wheat bread

UK:1.36

SE:1.48

ES:2.66SI:2.01

SK:2.17

RO:3.57PT:3.32

PL:2.16NL:1.24

MT:2.72

LU:1.84

LT:3.08

LV:4.5

IT:1.95

IE:1.30

HU:7.15

EL:3.34

DE:1.48

FR:1.56

FI:1.57 EE:2.95DK:1.47

CZ:2.24

CY:6.16

HR:4.02

BG:5.37

BE:1.72

AT:1.5

Data source: National water footprint accounts

Water use in the EU

Water footprints of selected agricultural products

The chart compares the relative water footprints of a selection of agricultural products. The size of the country boxes is proportional to the selection’s average water footprint, which is speci-fied in m3 per tonne, for each country.

All figures are from Mekonnen, M.M. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2011), National water footprint ac-counts: The green, blue and grey water footprint of production and consumption, Value of Wa-ter Research Report Series No 50, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands.

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Data sources: FAO-Aquastat

m3/inhabitant

Less than 50

Romania:19

Cyprus:22

Portugal:26

Poland:36

Sweden:46

Malta:47

Between 50 and

100

Greece: 51

France: 57

Slovenia: 61

Germany:63

Latvia:63

United Kingdom:

63

Bulgaria:63

Denmark:89

Italy:65

Spain:68

Luxembourg:74

More than 100

Slovakia:103

Netherlands:112

Belgium:112

Ireland:118

Czech Republic:119

Estonia:144

Austria:225

Lithuania:43

Croatia:49

Municipal waste water

Water use in the EU

The chart shows the amount of treated municipal wastewater per capita of the resident popula-tion in each Member State. For Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Malta and Slovakia,

municipal wastewater produced is shown.

Figures are for the latest year available (BE:2002, LU:2003, CY:2005, AT:2006, DE,IT:2007, FR:2008, BG, CZ, EE, LV, LT, MT, PT, SK:2009, DE, IE, NL,SI,SE:2010, HR, PL, RO, UK:2011); population as of 1 January 2013.

The EU’s Water Framework Directive, states that ‘water is not a commercial product … but rather a heritage that must be protected’.

Nevertheless, in addition to the lack of standard instruments in water accounting, risks linked to changes in river basin morphology and excessive water withdrawals, to the presence of medicines in waste water, pollution from diffuse sources and loss of aquatic

bio-diversity remain unacceptably high.

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Water use in the EUEPRS

Disclaimer and Copyright. The content of this document is the sole responsibility of the authors and any opinions expressed therein do not necessarily represent the official position of the European Parliament. It is addressed to the Members and staff of the EP for their parliamentary work. Reproduction and translation for non-commercial purposes are authorised, provided the source is acknowledged and the European Parliament is given prior notice and sent a copy. © European Union, 2016.

eprs@ep.europa.eu – http://www.eprs.ep.parl.union.eu (intranet) – http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank (internet) – http://epthinktank.eu (blog)

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Value added generated by individual workers in the water management sector - 2013(collection, treatment, supply and sewerage)

Data source: Eurostat

Value added – the difference between output and intermediate consumption – measures the contribution to GDP of an activity. The charts show the value added contributed per employee in enterprises working in water supply and treatment activities, including sewage, compared with the value added per

employee  in the total business economy, excluding financial services.

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Value added per employee(€ thousand)

Water (left hand axis) Total economy (right hand axis)

1114 15 17

23 22

2931

26

35

2628

49

90

47

63 64

36

84

36

7065

59

67

90

60

83 82

EU477

EU

€ thousand € thousandWater (left axis) Total economy (right axis)

NotesCountry codes: Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Croatia (HR), Cyprus (CY), Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Estonia (EE), Finland (FI), France (FR), Germany (DE), Greece (EL), Hungary (HU), Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Malta (MT), Netherlands (NL), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI), Spain (ES), Sweden (SE), United Kingdom (UK), European Union (EU28).

Extraction date: Data extracted in April 2016. This is an updated version of a document published in May 2015.

IE and PL (total economy): 2012 - EU average