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Seeber MEP: Improve water efficiency without price spikes
Austrian MEP Richard Seeber (European Peoples Party) says differences in regional needs and infrastructure make it difficult to have a one-size-fits-all approach to water efficiency.
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Industry chief: Pricing, policies should promote water efficiency
Having safe drinking water should be a basic human right, but consumers and governments also have a duty to set a price high enough to encourage efficiency, says Hans Telgan, who heads Europe’s plastic pipe industry trade association TEPPFA.
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World Bank exec: ‘Investment in water has been totally lagging’
Many of the water systems in major cities around the world, including in developed countries, have losses of 30-40%, says Lars H. Thunell of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC). And that’s not viable, he insists, so we have to make sure we invest.
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The water crisis is now
By 2025 half the world’s population will not have enough water to meet its needs, warns Rashad Kaldany, urging governments and the private sector to work on solutions, which he says, do exist.
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Europe urged to ‘radically transform’ water policy
The European Union needs to "radically transform" the way it manages water, energy and land to ensure the needs of the poorest people are met and the environment is protected, according to the new European Report on Development.
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World Bank bets on ‘socially responsible’ water pricing
Making users pay for water should be part of any policymakers' toolkit to manage scarcity, says Lars H. Thunell of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. But with safe drinking water now officially recognised as a human right, this has to be done in "a socially responsible way," he argues.
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Firms scramble to boost water-saving culture
From pet food manufacturing to wastewater treatment, companies show no lack of imagination when it comes to improving water efficiency at this year's annual Green Week event in Brussels.
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Policymakers weigh options for EU water pricing
Putting a price on water is essential to encourage savings but EU policymakers are cautious not to spark a social backlash with a one-size-fits-all solution. "Pay more if you use more" is, however, a model which could work, the MEP in charge of water issues told EURACTIV.
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Desalination: Solving water problems or creating a new one?
Faced with water shortages in its sunny south, Spain has become a European trendsetter in harnessing seawater for human use and is an industrial leader in desalination.
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Brussels rules out EU-wide water efficiency target
Huge water leakage differences between member states make an EU-wide water efficiency target “not necessary”, says an EU official working on the directive for the European Commission.
