Welcome to this very special newsletter, bringing together everything from last week’s high-level conference on water resilience in Brussels, which was well and truly a resounding success.
We wouldn’t have been able to do it without all of our passionate speakers and an audience that really cares, both online and those attending in person. So, a big thank you to all of you for making it such a success.
However, we’re not done yet. The conference may have wrapped up, but there are many more events on the way all around Europe. The conversation on becoming a #WaterWiseEU will continue throughout the summer at hundreds of partner events and hopefully beyond that, because it really is time to start seeing water differently.
This includes understanding water as much more than an infinite resource, but instead as a precious, common good, which we must learn to share.
The solutions to fix our problems are available – a key takeaway from EU Green Week.
But most of the issues we face aren’t technological challenges. The obstacles are political and social, because of the cost of doing these things at scale. That takes governance and consent and that’s where the big tests lie in the future.
And a lot of the hard, regulatory work is already done, even if there is still more to do. We have stricter conditions for drinking water and a trustworthy system for reusing water now both in force.
Very nearly in place we have the updated Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, with a host of novelties to reduce pollution and improve water quality, bringing better surveillance of pathogens.
Tighter industrial emissions legislation means cleaner water and healthier ecosystems.
And a little further off, but still on the way, we have new Environmental Quality Standards for 25 dangerous substances, helping prevent water pollution.
Now, it’s up to all of us to keep spreading the word, so that the ripples go right to the edge of a more #WaterWiseEU.
