Client: De Watergroep
EJWP1: March – June 2020
Participants: Ingrid Keupers, Rhys Hellin, Rosa Esposito and Mathilde de Jongh
Project Description
The Water Framework Directive provides a protective framework to ensure the availability of fresh water sources for present and coming generations. Amongst other measures it provides member states the possibility to identify zones that are used for the production of drinking water that require (higher) protection. Ananalysis of how this possibility has been implemented in different member states has been performed by the junior water professionals of EJWP1.
Appraoch
The project was a desktop research on the application of Article 7.3 of the WFD in 5 European regions: Flanders, Wales, Italy, The Netherlands and Sweden (mainly the home countries of the EJWP team participants). The results of the different regions are based on a scan of the national and local legislation and publicly available information on several aspects.
Results
This research shows that it is difficult to find information about the elaboration of the protection zones in the Member States. It is a marked observation that these DWSZs, although defined in three of the four regions of origin, are not well known with the general public. Awareness raising on the importance of source protection could be an important factor in safeguarding the drinking water production for current and future generations as it gives more leverage to public authorities to take the necessary measures.
Follow-up
The results of this research will be taken up by De Watergroep internally for knowledge dissemination among staff and for formulating policies on DWSZs in cooperation with authorities.
