Mr. Romano Prodi, Chairman of the UN-AU Panel for Peacekeeping in Africa and former President of the European Union, Mr. Martin Schulz, President of the S&D Group and Mr. Joseph Daul, President of the EPP Group, stressed the fact that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has many global challenges to face and that the role of the European Union is crucial in this process. The CAP needs to address first of all food security because the demand is increasing two times faster than the production. Secondly, CAP should focus on environmental sustainability in order to reach resource efficiency, to conserve biodiversity and to face climate change. In a third step, CAP needs to promote economic and social sustainability, for both the consumers and the producers.

Mr. Franz Fischler, President of the Eco-Social Forum Europe, and  …

Brussels, 12 July 2010

In a 19 months stakeholder process including partners from business, agriculture, civil society and with support of public authorities, the EWP Water Stewardship Program has elaborated this draft of the European Water Stewardship Standard, which is now ready for public consultation. This Water Stewardship Standard aims to provide water users in Europe with a tool to verify, certify and award their efforts towards Sustainable Water Management (SWM).

“This public consultation process represents an opportunity for all stakeholders with an interest in water to reflect on the draft Water Stewardship Standard and to support the development of a tool for Sustainable Water Use in Europe”, said Ms. Sabine von Wiren-Lehr, EWP Water Stewardship Program Coordinator.

The draft standard and referring glossary  …

The NWH, in partnership with PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, will work closely with the Economic Development Board to enhance cooperation and strengthen ties between Singaporean and Dutch businesses and research institutes in the water sector. Businesses, research institutions, and government agencies in Singapore can now directly tap on the Netherlands’ expertise, a country that has built its reputation on two hundred years of experience in managing and protecting its water resources and the environment.

“Today,  …

For more than three weeks, the European Water Partnerships invited website visitors to vote for their 3 most favourite pictures, considering photographer’s skills, creativity, originality, the artistic realization of the title and the intercultural comprehensibility.

Next, a high level jury will deliberate on the best pictures of the competition. This professional jury decision together with the Green week and online voting results will decide on the final winners that will be announced very soon.

The keynote Speaker, Mr. Luís Bulhao Martins, Vice President of the Portuguese Farmers Confederation and Vice-Chairman of the COPACOGECA Working Party on Environment, stressed the fact that farmers are adapting their management decisions to the changing climate on regular basis. Furthermore, “farmers have to be economic viable to cope with Climate Change, because they have to face also imbalances in food chain, volatility of the markets, rising global food demand and demand for bioenergy”.

Mr. Bulhao Marins said that good practices should be achieved in the future to adapt water needs for agriculture: first of all increasing water use efficiency  …

Brussels, 25 June 2010.  Yesterday, the EWP organized its fourth General Assembly in Brussels. Participants to the event discussed the developments of the European Water Partnership and future activities.

The General Assembly was followed by a networking and Belgium beer-tasting event within the premises of the EWP office building, organized in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Policy Office, bridging connections between companies and organizations of the building.

Brussels, 17 June 2010. As a follow up of the first Water Roundtable, held in Brussels 15-16 June, the AWS Board meets today in Brussels to discuss the outcomes of the conference and to develop strategies for the development of an international freshwater stewardship standard.

The first Water Roundtable, launched by the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) and hosted by the European Water Partnership (EWP), creates an inclusive, voluntary and consensus-driven approach to how freshwater is managed and protected globally. The complex and cross-boundary nature of freshwater demands a multi-stakeholder deliberation and decision-making to develop meaningful and implementable change.

The first Global Water Roundtable, a two-day conference, provides a platform for the development of a freshwater stewardship standard that recognizes and rewards water users and managers who take major steps to minimize the negative impacts of their water use and management. Today, the conference participants discussed the benefits of the Water Stewardship Program and the focus of International Standard setting.

Mr. Stuart Orr, WWF-International, outlined that increasing water scarcity is a reality which attracts increased social and media attention. “Water must be better managed by all”, he added, stressing the need for constructive solutions and international cooperation on water issues.

The EWP Water Stewardship Program Coordinator, Ms. Sabine von Wiren-Lehr, presented the Alliance for  …

Similar to other successful and transformative standard setting efforts, the Water Roundtable seeks to create an inclusive, voluntary, and consensus-driven approach to how freshwater is managed and protected globally. Ultimately, the complex, cross-boundary nature of freshwater and vested interest of public, commercial, and civil society stakeholders demands a multi-stakeholder deliberation and decision-making to develop meaningful and implementable change

Specifically, the Goals of the Launch in Brussels are to:

• Present the case for water, the Alliance for Water Stewardship and the importance of a Water Roundtable process;

• Refine the proposed benefits and model for international water stewardship standard(s) development;
• Build understanding and alignment on key global water-use impacts;
• Explain the proposed roadmap for creating multi-stakeholder standard(s); and
• Describe engagement opportunities and invite participation  …

Brussels, 9 June 2010. Tomorrow, the European Water Partnership will launch the first volume of the new EWP e-newsletter “Voice of Water”. From this month on, “Voice of Water” will be sent out regularly, containing the most important developments on water on European level, as well as recent news on the activities of the European Water Partnership.

This newsletter is a follow up to the earlier EWP newsletter, which was sent out till 2009.

Please click here to subscribe.

For any information or questions on this newsletter, please contact Lisa Struebbe: l.struebbe@ewp.eu or +32 2 735 0681.

DHI is a member of the European Water Partnership.

The essay is published by Copenhagen Climate Council and can be downloaded here:

https://www.mm.dk/the-blue-revolution-essay

Brussels, 8 May 2010. The EWP Water Stewardship Milestone Event, held in Brussels within the premises of the Representation of the State of Hessen to the EU, on 31^st of May, offered the opportunity for a dynamic exchange on recent deliverables of the EWP Water Stewardship Program, granted an insight in first pilot project experiences and gave the floor for networking.

Mr. Ralf Tegeler from the Representation of Hessen opened the EWP Water Stewardship Milestone Event, stressing that “water policy today is a key issue not only in Europe, but also and in particular in the regions”.

The Vice-Chairman of the European Water Partnership, Mr. Fritz Barth, welcomed the audience, emphasizing the outstanding role of the EWP Stewardship Program: “The aim of this program is to provide a tool to communicate and award responsible water users through the development of a common framework for assessing, implementing and communicating Sustainable Water Management.”

“We have reached a first Milestone. A draft standard has been developed giving guidance  …

Last week, visitors of the Green Week conference voted for their 3 most favorite pictures of the Aquawareness Photo Competition, examining photographer’s skills, creativity, originality, the artistic realization of the title and the intercultural comprehensibility.

With 76 votes, Oxana Salamaha’s photo (“wave & bird”) is the most popular picture of the Green Week voting. The photo was taken in Greece and shows a bird called “kingfisher”. Olivia Knight from England (“Splash”) lies in the second place, directly followed by Paul Roberts.

The online voting will be possible till 30th June 2010. To vote for winning pictures, please visit our Aquawareness photo competition picture gallery: www.ewp.eu/events/photo-competition/water-and-nature/2010.

Voting results, Green week:

1. Oxana Salamaha, -wave&bird- =76
2. Olivia Knight-splash- =54
3. Paul Roberts –robin- =44
4. Karolina Jablonska –ephemeroptera-=38
5. Yee Wei Kheoh, “Catch the ripple” =36
6. Karolina Jablonska -Iceland-  = 33
7. Oxana Salamaha –pond- =30
8. Conor Doherty,  …

Last month, the European Water Partnership invited youngsters living in Europe to express their understanding of the interlinkages between water and biodiversity in photos. All pictures have been exhibited during the Green Week, Europe’s most prominent environmental conference.

Agnes Biesiekierska, EWP project manager and organizer of the amateur photographic competition, is impressed by the quality of the submitted pictures: “Since the launch of the Aquawareness photo competition we have received inspiring photos from all over Europe. Amazing talents are participating in our photo competition, expressing different views on the connection between water and biodiversity in easily understandable language.”

A high level jury, Green week participants and EWP website visitors will vote for the competition winners, examining photographer’s skills, creativity, originality, the artistic realization of the title and  …

About Wetsus

Wetsus, Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology is a facilitating intermediary for trend setting know-how development. Wetsus  …

Together with its partners from business, agriculture, civil society and with support of public authorities, the European Water Partnership established the Water Stewardship program in 2008. This program offers concrete response on how to implement and evaluate Sustainable Water Management within a local context: based on their water accountancy results, water users receive tools to mitigate their impacts and to establish an efficient operational water management cycle. With that, the Water Stewardship scheme creates positive incentives to change behavior and practices, and concretely supports the actual goal of the European Commission to achieve “Resource Efficiency”.

A draft standard has been developed giving guidance to water users and providing the basis to assess, certify and communicate the sustainability of operational water management. To ensure that this scheme is implementable by a broad  …

For more information on OFWAT please visit: http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/aboutofwat/

One of the most important challenges of the XXI century is to ensure the sustainable integral management of water to achieve a balance between water demand and water availability. Europe has extensive knowledge and experience in developing solutions in the field of water; however the fragmented character of the European water sector strongly limits its potential. Therefore, the aim of this Congress is to create the appropriate environment for establishing a debate forum for the exchange of information and for a better collaboration and/or coordination between companies, administrations, public organizations, research institutes and universities. The aim is not to look back into the past, the goal is to understand the future needs by analyzing the past and solve  …

“A number of initiatives focusing on water saving are ongoing in Europe. Aquawareness – the European Water Awareness and Water Stewardship Programme launched in June 2008 by the European Water Partnership (EWP), involves stakeholders from various sectors of business and civil society including NGOs, regional and local governments in developing joint solutions for more sustainable water management.”

The 2009 follow-up report to the 2007 Communication on Water Scarcity & Droughts in the EU was adopted on the 19th of May.

To read the full report, please visit:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/quantity/eu_action.htm#2009