Record heat at the beginning of July, increased risk of forest fires in Germany in the first months of the year, fire and floods (sometimes simultaneously) in several European countries, but also in other parts of the world – extreme weather events as a result of climate change cause costly damage, endanger or destroy livelihoods. A particular challenge is that, according to scientific findings, changes become less predictable, which limits the scope of action in water-related threats and emergencies. Water scarcity is increasing in Germany and worldwide. In addition, water supplies are coming under pressure due to pollution, overuse and in the context of energy generation from renewable sources.
Hardly any other consequence of climate change is likely to hit humanity more seriously than a lack of water, which already harbours the potential for economic and ecological conflict and can pose a threat to the security and cohesion of societies in the future.
Water resources must be secured, controlled for long term use. There is a theoretical consensus on this – strategy documents at the federal and EU level bear witness to this. It is crucial to counteract water shortages in good time to secure resources in terms of quantity and quality in the long run, to moderate conflicts of interest between consumers, industry and agriculture and at the same time to use the potential that water holds in terms of adaptation to climate change.
Strategies and legal provisions – especially at EU level – must therefore be implemented in a prioritized manner and appropriate monitoring of successes and adaptation needs must be set up. Incentives for the careful use of water must be created, and land use conflicts must be regulated in a regionally differentiated manner with the involvement of the stakeholders concerned – the federal government, the federal states, municipalities, trade associations, business and the population. Water quality and quantity must be considered together.
Water policy must be a priority part of climate adaptation policy. This requires intersectoral cooperation and the integration of water policy into other policy areas, including security policy, at national and EU level. Above all, existing structures should be used for coordination to keep the bureaucratic effort as low as possible and not to lose any time.
Water infrastructure is part of critical infrastructure and as such must be prioritized through maintenance, expansion and climate-adapted conversion. Policy-related research on the topic of water must be promoted, digitalisation in water management must be driven forward and existing technologies must be scaled. Appropriate knowledge and experience at regional, national and European level should be pooled for this purpose.
The infrastructure package adopted by the Federal Government should be used both to adapt the water infrastructure to the challenges and to intensify research and (awareness) education among the population on water issues. In doing so, framework conditions should be created that allow innovations to be turned into business cases. Living laboratories for water management could make an important contribution here. Because water will increasingly become a competitive factor. For the European economy, this will give rise to new business models, especially in view of its technological leadership in the water sector: be it in terms of water-saving technologies, circular water use or the promotion of research. The economy uses water in many ways and is therefore obliged to protect it together with politicians.
Challenges around water are never just hydrological or ecological phenomena. Rather, they also have economic, social and political implications. However, they can be shaped – by taking a long-term view of the big picture and the courageous, innovative interaction of politics, business, science and civil society at national, European and global level. If the diverse thought processes are followed by action, water crisis management can lead to water risk management and water resilience can be built.
Read the entire monitor: ‘Water Is Becoming a Critical Resource’ from our Sustainability series here as a PDF.
