Photo: BMLFUW/Rita Newman
Transnational waters
Water has no frontiers. It doesn’t know any administrative or political levels of competence. Water is not constrained by national borders, either. The Danube, for instance, has a catchment area with extends over 18 states and nearly 10 percent of the territory of Europe.
The European Water Framework Directive (WFD)A milestone in European water policy is the EU’s Water Framework Directive. It provides the framework and the objectives for the protection of water(s) for all EU Member States as well as for the integration of the public.
The FD harmonises flood control, the utilisation of water power and the sustainable development of rural areas with the requirements of waters protection and the securing of near-natural living environments.
A positive impact on the climate can be expected, as water resources and climate are mutually dependent. If the size and quality of the aquatic habitats are secured, periods of draught and flood events can be mitigated.
The goal is to be able to ensure that waters are successfully kept clean and that water keeps its high quality also in the future. A good ecological and chemical status for surface waters and a good chemical and quantitative status for groundwater is to be achieved by the year 2015, at the latest.
Time schedule for the implementation of the WFD
The WFD contains detailed requirements concerning the assessment of the status of waters as well as concerning how and in which time frame this status of waters is to be improved. For this purpose, the following steps have been determined:
- 2003: Transposition of the Water Framework Directive into national law. By means of the 2003
Amendment to the 1959 Water Rights Act (WRG) the Directive was transposed into national law in Austria
in due time.
- March 2005: Report on the status-quo analysis: Classification and characterisation of waters, survey of
stress and its impacts, economic analysis of the utilisations of the water. The report of the STATUS QUO
analysis was published in April 2005 and communicated to the European Commission.
- December 2006: Re-orientation of the programme to monitor the status of waters. Summary of the major
questions of water management for the information of the public.
- December 2008: Drafting of the management plans for the waters with subsequent participation of the
public.
- December 2009: Adoption of the management plants (programmes of measures) for the waters.
- By 2010: Launching of political measures to ensure the efficient use of water resources.
- December 2012: Establishment of a monitoring system.
- December 2015 and after that every 10 years: Intermediate report on the implementation of the Water
Framework Directive.
Major objectives of the WFD
- The objective of achieving the good status of all waters and the aim of trans-national cooperation.
- Good status does not only mean good quality of the water, but also sufficient space for living for the
aquatic organisms.
- The division by river catchment areas. For each river catchment area, specific water management plans
are prepared.
- The decisive point for the identification of the quality objectives is the respective type of water. Water
bodies are classified into different types and their ecological rating is carried out in terms of their typical
animals and plants.
- Interested institutions as well as representatives of the public concerned of the measures of water
management (industry and trade, environmental organisations, representatives of the public,
municipalities, etc.) will be actively integrated in the preparation of the water management plans. This
procedure is to ensure public acceptance and shared responsibility.
- Ban against action liable to cause deterioration: As a principle, the water quality status must not
deteriorate. Exceptions from this rule are possible where there is a super-ordinate public interest and
alternatives are technically not feasible or require unreasonably high costs.
- The Directive is also to contribute to the progressive reduction, and eventually the termination, of
emissions of hazardous substances into the water.
- To achieve the good status, the most cost-efficient measures have to be chosen.
- Cost-covering prices for drinking water, water for industrial purposes and waste water: Those using the
water, including industrial enterprises and trade, have to contribute their share to covering the cost of
the services according to the polluter-pays principle. Exceptions from this principle are possible in
particular for social reasons.
- A water management data pool, the water information system Austria WISA, was established:
wisa.lebensministerium.at
- When implementing the WFD influence is exerted on “related” fields of activity. These comprise in
particular regional development, the energy industry, transport, agriculture and fishery as well as tourism. - With the Water Framework Directive the EU focuses more strongly on the spirit of solidarity and
cooperation of the Member States to achieve common goals. Furthermore, a good and comparable
European standard is to be established.
International water policy
A long time before the WFD entered into force a multitude of different agreements regulated the joint utilisation and protection of rivers and brooks.
In the bilateral treaties on waters forming frontiers concluded between Austria and Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein aspects of the protection against floods, water utilisation and anti-pollution measures were regulated.
Moreover, Austria has also been involved for many years in the multilateral Transboundary Waters Commissions formed to manage the Danube, Rhine, Elbe rivers and Lake Constance. As an agreement between all countries of the Danube river basin the Danube River Protection Convention of 1994 provides for a homogeneous system of water protection between the Danube countries which helps also relieve the Black Sea.
These regulations will remain in force also in the future.
02.07.2008, Lebensministerium Öffentlichkeitsarbeit