International River Basin Sheets

"EUROPEAN ACTION ON WATER SCARCITY AND DROUGHT"

DATA COLLECTION - QUESTIONNAIRE

Purpose of the questionnaire

A number of Member States requested to initiate a European action on water scarcity and droughts during the Environment Council of 9 March 2006. The Commission presented a first analysis of these issues during the Environment Council of 27 June 2006 and proposed to strengthen the diagnosis, on the basis of complementary data to be provided by MemberStates and stakeholders and to prepare a first interim report at technical level to be discussed with the Water Directors in December 2006.

Further to the Water Directors' meeting on 2 June in Salzburg, the Water Directors agreed 'to support the Commission's further analysis and data collection and to fill the gaps identified by MemberStates and the Commission'.

The gaps identified concern the analysis of (i) the problems: magnitude, causes and impacts of water scarcity and droughts as well as (ii) the implementation of existing instruments (CAP, WFD, regional and structural funds) to address these problems.

This questionnaire provides the basis for the data collection.

Where appropriate, these data could be integrated in WISE.

Instructions for filling in the questionnaire

The questionnaire consists of a box with:

A. Contact details of the official completing the form:and the contact point for the water scarcity group Please indicate these information in the questionnaire.

B. Information on water scarcity situations and drought episodes: Please give us concrete figures at country or river basins level.

In case of information which was already included in your Art. 5 report and in order to avoid duplicating Water Framework directive reporting, please mention where we can find this information in the report (pages, sections, etc.).

The definition of Water scarcity and droughts is the one given in the Information note, provided by the Commission for the Environment Council of 27 June 2006.

'In this document, "water scarcity" refers to long-term water imbalances, combining arid or semi-arid climate (low water availability) with a level of water demand exceeding the supply capacity of the natural system.

Aridity and droughts are natural aspects of the Earth’s climate, but aridity is a long-term average feature while droughts are a deviation from an average situation, for a limited period of time. Aridity is defined by long-term low precipitation rates, often together with high evaporation rates, and results in a limited availability of water resources.

Droughts, on the contrary, can be considered as a temporary decrease of the average water availability. Droughts can occur anywhere in Europe by definition in both high and low rainfall areas and in any season, whereas aridity concerns only the Mediterranean region (semi-arid characteristics). The impact of droughts can be exacerbated when occurring in a region with already low water resources, with mismanagement of water resources and with imbalances between water demands and the supply capacity of the natural system.

It is essential to differentiate between transitory periods of water deficiency, due to an exceptional drought, and long-term imbalances of available water resources and demand.'

C. Information on current implementation of existing EU instruments: Please give us concrete figures on the use of EU instruments or explain why they were not useful in your case.

Period covered:

Data and information are given for for the current (2000-2006) and, whenever possible, next (2007-2013) programming periods. .

Geographic scale:

Information is given for the country except for the countries where variability between river basins is too important; there, information is given at river basin scale.

Deadline:

A first Interim report will be submitted to the Water Directors on 30 November – 1 December. Therefore we need first data by mid-September in order to prepare a draft report to be discussed by the Strategic coordination Group on 8-9 November 2006.

We would kindly like to ask you for your cooperation in completing the questionnaire.

Please return the completed questionnaire by 11 September 2006to (, and to

If you have any questions when completing the questionnaire, please contact ,

Country:

WATER SCARCITY & DROUGHTS

A. Contact person:

Questionnaire completed by:

Name: / Bosenius
Country: / Germany
Organisation: / Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety
E-mail: /
Telephone: / ++492283052510

B. Information on Water Scarcity & Droughts

B.1. WATER SCARCITY:

You can answer for your whole country or by river basin (in this case one table per basin)

DELINEATION OF THE PROBLEM AND AFFECTED POPULATIONS:

Water scarce zones:
Population / not availableNeglectable
Area in km² / n.a.
Comments

IDENTIFICATION OF THE KEY PLAYERS and CAUSES:

Causes of long-term imbalances: % of volume abstracted in the country or by river basin
You can answer for each year 2005- 2004 -2003 – 2002- 2001 or on average
Domestic sector
Tourism
Industries
Energy (cooling of power plants)
Irrigation
Others
Comments / Ca 5% Groundwater bodies in all sectors ca 5% imbalances on average 2001-2004 in brown coal mining areas

IMPACTS: WHO IS AFFECTED? IN WHAT WAYS AND TO WHAT EXTENT?

Impacts of these long-term imbalances:
Please identify (direct and indirect) environmental, economic and social impacts and how they occur in a qualitative, quantitative and monetary terms where possible and appropriate.
Economic (damages, losses, higher prices):
Consumers and households
Tourism
Industry
Energy
Agriculture
Others / n.a
n.a.
n.a
n.a.
sSome regions especially in Eastern Germany are haveaffected. impacts.
Social:
Employment
Equality of treatment
Public health and safety
Others / To guarantee water-supply of other sectors agriculture could be firstly affected
Environmental:
Surface waters
Groundwaters
Coastal waters
Wetlands
Soils
Biodiversity
Others / Certain impacts
Certain impacts
Others
Comments

B.2. DROUGHTS:

You can give a list of drought events (within a period of 30 years) and fill in one table per drought event or for the major damaging ones.

DELINEATION OF THE PROBLEM AND AFFECTED POPULATIONS:

Major damaging droughts in your country:
Date (year) / 2003 and 2006 (wir sollen die letzten 30 Jahre auflistenwe are looking for data since 1960!)
Duration (days) / 60 days during summer
Population / n.a.
Area affected in km² / n.a.
Comments

IDENTIFICATION OF THE KEY PLAYERS and CAUSES:

Influence of human actions on drought impact:
You can answer for each drought episode
Role of water users: % of volume abstracted (or consumed?)
Domestic sector
Tourism
Industries
Energy (cooling of power plants) / Reduction of production
Irrigation / Reduction of production and losses in quality
Other factors:
Comments / Irrigation is limited on licenses. During summer 2003 in some areas water scarcity was occurred

IMPACTS: WHO IS AFFECTED? IN WHAT WAYS AND TO WHAT EXTENT?

Impacts of each drought episode:
Please identify (direct and indirect) environmental, economic and social impacts and how they occur in a qualitative (high, low, medium), quantitative and monetary terms where possible and appropriate. Try to describe the impacts: suspend irrigation, restriction on drinking water, stop hydropower plant, stop discharges from industry
Economic (damages, losses, higher prices):
Consumers and households
Tourism
Industry
Energy
Agriculture
Others / Navigation(from load reduction to suspension)
Income losses possible(lower production of hydro-plants and thermal power stations)
Income losses possible(suspend or very expensive irrigation)
Social:
Employment
Equality of treatment
Public health and safety
Others / n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
Environmental:
Surface waters
Groundwaters
Coastal waters
Wetlands
Soils
Biodiversity
Others / Temperature
Impacts possible
Others
Comments

C. Information on the use of EU funds

Where appropriate, please indicate the way you are using the EU instrument, what budget is/was is going to be allocated for your country for measures addressing water scarcity and droughts .For the current programming period 2000-2006, and whenever possible for the next 2007-2013 programming period, please indicate the nature of the projects funded addressing water scarcity and droughts and the corresponding expenditures (total costs per EU instrument, ratio : total costs/national budget available per EU instrument).

C.1. Common Agricultural Policy

Rural Developments programmes

Improvement of water availability in agriculture sector is foreseen.

No gap