“Over the last 2 years we have seen the devastating impacts of successive droughts and floods on our rivers and waterways impacting on our fish and fishing, most notably the tragic floods in Slovenia earlier this year. Working with our coalition partners we are calling for greater action to improve the resilience of our waterways for the future benefit of anglers” said Mark Owen, EAA Board member and EAA representative in the Living Rivers Europe Coalition.
“Rather than calling for an EU Blue Deal which relies heavily on grey infrastructure, we need to continue implementing the Green Deal and accelerate efforts to safeguard water for nature and for people,” says Claire Baffert, Senior Water Policy Officer at WWF’s European Policy Office and Chair of the Living Rivers Europe coalition. “We urge the European Commission to draw up a new EU Climate and Water Resilience Law that ensures clean and sufficient water for people by securing healthy freshwater ecosystems for nature.”
The NGOs caution against turning to concrete infrastructure in a bid to temporarily fix water shortage and flood problems: “Building new dams, channelling riverbeds or implementing large-scale water transfers only increases our vulnerability to climate change impacts in the future. Instead, natural ecosystems including free-flowing rivers, restored floodplains, wetlands and peatlands need the space and freedom to do their job of absorbing, filtering and storing water, and providing vital habitats for nature,” says Paul Brotherton, Freshwater Manager at Wetlands International Europe.
In the position paper for water resilience, the coalition also calls for the full enforcement of the Water Framework Directive, climate adaptation to be integrated into all EU policies and an end to subsidies that harm freshwater.
