EWP Newsletter July 2010
Pilot project addressing desertification
in Southern Europe
Brussels, July 2010. Water Scarcity and Droughts are among
the largest challenges for Southern and parts of Central and
East Europe. Precipitation becomes ever scarcer, temperatures
are rising, and the available water is used to such extent that
available water in aquifers and basins is dropping further. In
ever more areas, this lack of available water already leads to
desertification.
European Water Partnership
Av. de Tervuren 168, bte 15
1150 Brussels, Belgium
Phone +32 2 735 0681
Fax +32 2 735 0682
[email protected]
www.ewp.eu
Europe will need to address this challenge urgently, a fact
which is acknowledged by the European Commission. In a
recent call for proposals, the EC combined the need to address
desertification with the potential of innovative technologies to
use water more efficiently. Research has shown that only by
implementing innovative technologies, overall water use could
be reduced by as much as 45%.
The EWP responded to this call together with a number of
partners by setting up a project proposal involving an
innovative technology to reduce water use in irrigation and
testing this technology on farms in Cyprus and Spain. Because
the effects of implementing a new technology on the water use
shouldn’t be tested in isolation on a single farm, but instead be
tested for their effects on the whole river basin, the Water
Stewardship Programme is involved in this proposal. The Water
Stewardship tool will be tested on the farms involved, and will
provide a holistic framework to evaluate the effects of the
implementation of the technology on the whole river basin.
If granted, this project can start in October 2010.
Media contact:
Lisa Struebbe
[email protected]
+32 (0) 273 50 681