Water Vision for Europe

Water Vision for Europe

The Water Vision for Europe is underpinning both programs – the European Water Awareness and Water Stewardship Program. This vision was created by the European Water Partnership within its Aquawareness programme and developed together with a large group of stakeholders to express the challenges, opportunities and chances Europe is facing and to present a future for Europe’s water. The Vision contains clear objectives and commitments, it includes social, environmental and economic aspects. Furthermore is shall unite multi stakeholder opinions and bridge high policy level and basic stakeholders. Therefore, the vision will serve as guidance to reach joint actions in the different partnerships on advanced water management and to solve the water problems in Europe and global water challenges. The postulates of this vision will serve as a basis for the concrete project settings of both programs - as a source for awareness activities and as a basis to define principles of sustainable water management for best governance tools of the stewardship program.

To download the Water Vision for Europe please click here .

The Vision was launched together with Aquawareness during a high ranking event in the European Parliament on 30th June 2008. A short summary of this event can be found here .

The process

The Water Vision for Europe was created to express the challenges, opportunities and chances Europe is facing and to present a future for Europe’s water. The Vision contains clear objectives and commitments. Therefore, the vision will serve as guidance to reach joint actions in the different partnerships on advanced water management and to solve the water problems in Europe and global water challenges.

The European Water Vision is underpinning both programs of Aquawareness - the European Water Awareness and Water Stewardship Program. The postulates of this vision will serve as a basis for the concrete project settings of both programs: as a source for awareness activities and as a basis to define principles of sustainable water management for best governance tools of the stewardship program.

The Vision, which was initiated by the EWP, was elaborated in an open multi-stakeholder process and handed over to the European Union Institutions on 30th June 2008 during the launch of Aquawareness. A summary of this event can be found here.

For the launching version of the Vision as well as for the list of contributers to this version, please click here.

After this expert view on the basic vision text, a broad discussion, dissemination and commitment of a maximum of stakeholder groups throughout Europe is crucial. Therefore, a regional consultation process across Europe is lanced by the EWP that will give the opportunity to add region-specific points. As major outcomes of these workshop discussions on water management topics, it is envisaged to gain:

  • joint commitments towards sustainable water management, created by the stakeholders of one region, 
  • region specific points 
  • a map of actual projects/ activities implementing the vision aims 
  • the identification of main obstacles to the implementation of the vision aims

To obtain more detailed information on the regional workshops please click here (link to regional workshops).

The regional consultation process has started in winter 2008 and will continue till the beginning of February 2009. At the end of this consultation process, the region-specific views and opinions on the Water Vision for Europe will be discussed and analysed at the final workshop.

Finally, the Water Vision for Europe will be presented during the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul in March 2009, as a European contribution to the forum and as a result from wide ranging regional consultations.

However the Water Vision for Europe will not stop in Istanbul. With the tool of vision mapping, the EWP is currently exploring the current status of the water situation:

–  which activities and projects are already implementing the Vision aims
–  where are the gaps and obstacles towards implementation of the Vision aims

Having created a Vision map of status quo and a gap analysis, the EWP will initiate, support and enforce all actions and projects within Europe which help achieveing the Vision.

Ongoing modules:
MODULE E1: Regional workshops and project mapping
MODULE E2: Vision film

MODULE E1:Regional workshops and project mapping

Regional workshops
After the expert view on the basic vision text, a broad discussion, dissemination and commitment of a maximum of stakeholder groups throughout Europe is crucial. Therefore, a regional consultation process across Europe is lanced by the EWP that will give the opportunity to add region-specific points. As major outcomes of these workshop discussions on water management topics, it is envisaged to gain:

  • joint commitments towards sustainable water management, created by the
    stakeholders of one region,
  • region specific points
  • a map of actual projects/ activities implementing the vision aims
  • the identification of main obstacles to the implementation of the vision aims

The regional consultation process foresees four workshops. At the end of this consultation process, the region-specific views and opinions on the European Water Vision will be analysed in a final workshop and then presented during the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul in March 2009, as a European contribution to the forum and as a result from wide ranging regional consultations.

The following regional workshops will take place (in order of date)

A final workshop (2nd week of February 2009 and place tbc) will collect, discuss and analyse the results of all regional workshops and prepare the document on the Water Vision for Europe to be presented during the 5th World Water Forum, Istanbul, March 2009.

Vision project mapping
In parallel and during the regional workshops the EWP lanced a vision mapping – with the aim to:

  • achieve an overview of actual projects and activities, which are already implementing the vision aims
  • analyse the missing or overlapping actions
  • identify the main obstacles to the implementation of the vision goals

The vision mapping will create a memorandum of actions which will lead to recommendations for policy making.

To download and fill in the working document on the vision mapping, please click here .

MODULE E2: Vision film
A short film with realistic pictures visualizing the aims of the Water Vision for Europe will convey a better understanding of a sustainable water future for Europe. Showing the results of a successful implementation of the Vision mission will enhance the joint commitment of the various stakeholders to achieve advanced water management in Europe.