Only about one-third of Europe’s surface water is in good health or better, a report has found, despite an EU target first set for 2015 to bring all bodies of water up to good quality.
About 37% of Europe’s surface waters qualified as having at least a good ecological status and 29% a good chemical status in 2021, according to data from 19 member countries compiled by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The original deadline for the EU target has been extended to 2027 but data suggests this is on track to be missed by a wide margin.
The report found that farms had the biggest effect on Europe’s surface water and groundwater, drawing out too much water and pumping in too many pollutants, along with the impact of coal-fired power plants that spew out toxic particles.
Parts of western and central Europe such as Germany and the Netherlands had a particularly high share of water bodies in poor health, the report found.
It highlighted the “catastrophic” die-off of fish in the Oder River in 2022 that was mainly caused by pollution from salt mines and nutrients from urban wastewater.
The EU introduced sweeping rules on water management almost 25 years ago that sent member countries racing to improve the quality of their bodies of water. But efforts over the last decade “have rarely translated into improved status overall”, the EEA found.