Scientists call on the EU to tackle emerging chemical pollution threat to freshwaters

Scientists from across the world lent their support to a statement published last week calling for stronger EU water pollution standards. The statement, signed by 465 scientists, urges the European Commission, EU Member States and the European Parliament to prioritise Europe’s freshwaters in upcoming negotiations.

The scientists state that current freshwater monitoring practices overlook the vast range of pollutants affecting freshwater ecosystems. Hundreds of chemical substances now find their way into European rivers and lakes, and can act together in complex ‘cocktails’ to harm freshwater life.

However, existing EU law doesn’t adequately address this modern reality, the scientists argue. The Water Framework Directive (WFD), adopted in the year 2000, is the EU’s key law to protect freshwater and coastal ecosystems.

Whilst the WFD has significantly strengthened freshwater management in Europe, it now needs updating to ensure it both monitors and addresses the realities of contemporary chemical pollution across the continent.

“Member States are dragging their feet to curb water pollution, and people and nature have to pay the price. We can’t afford to wait a decade to curb pollution that’s harming Europe’s coastal and freshwater habitats,” says Sara Johansson, Senior Policy Officer at the European Environmental Bureau, who coordinated the statement.

The time for swift and ambitious action for Europe’s freshwaters is now. Freshwater species have collapsed by 85% across the continent since 1970 as a result of habitat loss and pollution, meaning that fewer than half of Europe’s water bodies are in good health. Moreover, whilst freshwater restoration efforts have gathered pace in recent decades, the recovery of Europe’s freshwater biodiversity has stalled since 2010.

“I urge all freshwater scientists, ecologists and managers to take a look at this,” says Simon Johnson, Executive Director of the Freshwater Biological Association. “Why is it that freshwater ecosystems always seem to be the poor cousin when it comes to the attention placed on their higher profile terrestrial and marine family members? Without freshwater there is no life, human or wild. Together, let’s stand up for freshwaters!”

The scientists call on European policy makers to update the WFD and its ‘daughter directives’, the Environmental Quality Standards Directive and the Groundwater Directive, to better address the harmful effects of new and emerging chemical pollutants on freshwater ecosystems.

The group highlight the potential of new tools to monitor chemical pollution and its effects on freshwater life. They emphasise that whilst such approaches require financial investment, the benefits healthy freshwaters bring to humans – clean drinking water, recreation and well-being, food production and so on – are vast.

“Water companies have increasing difficulty providing clean drinking water,” says Manon Rouby, Policy Officer at PAN Europe. “Intake from surface water has to be stopped regularly because there are too many pesticide residues in the water. Recently, we found TFA – the tiny PFAS –  in water everywhere in Europe. This will pollute our drinking water for generations to come.”

“Europe’s waters are drowning in chemical pollution, yet EU water protection standards are nearly obsolete, and enforcement is weak – to the extent that hundreds of scientists are sounding the alarm,” concludes Codruta Savu, Water and Climate Change Adaptation Policy Officer at the WWF European Policy Office. “We need stronger pollution limits, better monitoring, and full implementation of the Water Framework Directive’s non-deterioration principle.”

Read the Statement of support for updated EU water pollution standards