[Focus] New EU law to tackle groundwater pollution

RENATA GOLDIROVA

14.03.2007 @ 10:03 CET

EUOBSERVER / FOCUS – Although Europe is one of the world's most economically advanced regions, with most Europeans taking clean water for granted, lack of access to safe drinking-water and poor sanitation still threatens the health of millions of people in European countries.

Out of roughly 877 million people living in Europe, almost 140 million do not have a household connection to a drinking-water supply, 85 million do not have improved sanitation and over 41 million do not have access to a safe supply of drinking-water.

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All pollution in water, whether injected by industry, agriculture or households, returns back and may cause damage to human health or the environment. However, this critical situation rarely hits the headlines as it is often overshadowed by water-related problems in other parts of the world.

One of the main EU solutions rests with the groundwater-protection directive, shifting the focus from "at the tap" to "at the source."

Under the piece of law - adopted in the last-resort conciliation procedure between the European Parliament and member states last December - EU countries will be required to monitor and assess groundwater quality on the basis of common criteria, as well as to prevent hazardous substances from entering underground water used for human consumption.

The new groundwater directive is designed to help meet the overall targets of the EU's Framework Water Directive which dates back to the year 2000.

Groundwater, acting as a prime reservoir, supplies 75 percent of the EU's public drinking water. However, it is estimated that 800,000 people in France, 850,000 in the UK and 2.5 million in Germany are drinking water with nitrate concentrations above the permitted EU limit.

"Groundwater is our most important natural source," said German conservative MEP Christa Klass, who piloted the legislation through European Parliament, adding "over half of the freshwater bodies in the EU are polluted and can never be cleaned up again."

"This is why we must protect them better", she added.

As MEPs had wanted, the scope of the directive was broadened so that its aim will be to protect groundwater "against pollution and deterioration" and not only "against pollution" as EU governments had proposed.

The Commission and the Council also accepted in the negotiations with MEPs that a member state can declare itself a protection zone for groundwater and then forbid pesticides otherwise allowed by EU legislation. This was a strong political victory for the Parliament supporting the principle of minimum legislation.

Provisions to come into effect in early 2009 will require member states to take "all measures necessary to prevent inputs into groundwater of any hazardous substances".

Substances regulated under the new measures are listed in the 2000 water-framework directive, which also lays down fundamental requirements for groundwater protection. They include cyanide, arsenic, biocides and phytopharmaceutical substances.

But in a concession to member states, parliament agreed to take nitrate pollution from farming out of the text. The limit value of 50 mg per litre for nitrate pollution, laid down in the 1991 directive on nitrates, will therefore continue to apply.

"It was the best possible compromise," Pieter Depous from the European Environmental Bureau, Europe's largest federation of environmental organisations, said. But he added "there is a number of loopholes and exceptions, which pose a clear risk of deviating from the obligation."

According to Mr Depous "it would be better to have an instrument to stop pollution, as currently you only get in trouble if a chemical reaches groundwater."

"For example, industry uses water and pollutes water, but never faces the bill," he said, adding "if we do not apply the polluter pays principal, it will always be a tax payer who pays."