The EU executive wants to hear from governments, civil society and industry as yet another report highlights the scale of the EU’s failure to clean up its rivers, lakes and seas.
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00:00Pollution, overconsumption, waste. These are the three biggest problems Europeans say they
00:07face with water. But it also includes devastating floods on one hand and the threat of desertification
00:14on the other. According to the European Commission's State of Water Report, the EU's water resources
00:20are under significant pressure.
00:22Less than 40% of our EU surface water bodies achieve good ecological status with healthy
00:30ecosystems being home to many species and with water able to regenerate itself. And
00:37only a quarter achieve good chemical status, meaning that the relevant thresholds of hazardous
00:43substances are not exceeded. Many Member States recognise that this is a big problem. Some
00:49progress has been made over the last years, but there is still a lot of work to do.
00:55The Commissioner said that the EU has directives and recommendations, but their implementation
01:00is not perfect. Therefore, the Executive will initiate a dialogue with various sectoral
01:05representatives as well as with the Member States.
01:09We need to do more to ensure the security of our water supply because citizens need
01:14clean water, farmers and businesses need a stable water supply, and we need to protect
01:20our fresh and marine waters to reduce flood risks. Because the cost of inaction is too
01:26high, knowing the situation will become worse.
01:30Based on the current reports, the European Commission will present an EU water resilience
01:35strategy this spring.