Past and future sustainability of water policies in Europe

Abstract

The article contributes to a discussion on two global issues on water: water resources management, and water supply and sanitation. Focusing on Europe, it traces the legal roots of current systems in history: as a resource, water is considered as a common property, rather than a market good; while as a public service it is usually a commodity. Public water supply and sanitation technologies and engineering have developed under three main paradigms: quantitative and civil engineering; qualitative and chemical/sanitary engineering (both on the supply side); and the most recent one, environmental engineering and integrated management (on the demand side).The cost of public drinking water is due to rise sharply in view of the two-fold financial challenge of replacing an ageing infrastructure and keeping up with ever-rising environmental and sanitary quality standards. Who will pay? Government subsidies, or water users? The author suggests that apparent successes with privatisation may have relied heavily on hidden government subsidies and/or the healthy state of previously installed water infrastructure: past government subsidies are still felt for as long as the lifetime of the infrastructure.The article stresses the importance of public participation and decentralized local management of water and sanitation services. Informing and involving users in water management decisions is seen as an integral part of the 'ethics' side of the crucial three E's (economics, environment, ethics).The article strongly argues for municipal provision of water services, and hopes that lessons learnt and solutions found in the European experience may serve water services management efforts in other regions of the world.

Water Management Supporting the Delivery of Ecosystem Services for Grassland, Heath and Moorland

“…Effective and efficient water management can, through innovation, contribute to an effective provision of wider ecosystem services, and, where necessary, improve efficiency in manure and fertiliser use, help contribute to a reduced cost of drinking water provision and play a pivotal role in green flood protection systems. While examples exist which demonstrate the technical feasibility of this approach [19,23,62], more information on the economics of the systems will be required in order to assess how this approach could be rolled out more widely as a EU policy initiative. In order to be effective and cost efficient in provision of ecosystem services, water management needs to operate at a watershed or landscape level although, in most EU regions, this level of land unit is far above that held by the individual landowner.…”

“…Land reclamation in what is now this Member State (MS) dates from around 800 A.D. when drainage was achieved mainly by gravity at low tides [22]. After the Second World War, the capacity of pumped drainage was gradually increased in order to facilitate increased agricultural production [23]. With food security achieved, later changes in land use, i.e., the increase of horticulture, urbanisation and the associated need for recreational and nature areas, required once more the implementation of a fundamental change in drainage management.…”

Vigilance of tap water quality: what is the potential for relying on individuals as alarm raisers?

“…It is perhaps too ambitious to expect a sufficient transformation of consumer-water supplier relations as previously described and to overcome the solidly established social, political and institutional norms which have long kept individuals separate from technical considerations in water management [29,30].…”

Antibacterial Activity of Copper Nanoparticles and Copper Nanocomposites against Escherichia Coli Bacteria

“…Because of their high reactivity due to the large surface to volume ratio [2], nanoparticles are expected to play a crucial role in water purification [3,4], when water becomes an important commodity [5]. The metallic nanoparticles are most promising for disinection as they exhibit high anti bacterial properties due to their large surface area to volume ratio.…”