This year’s record heat has left about 38 percent of Europe in drought. Overuse of water, mismanagement of water resources and pollution of lakes and rivers have further exacerbated water stress on the continent. In the face of this situation, the European Union is treating water scarcity as one of the greatest environmental emergencies.
According to the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) Water Use Index Plus (WEI+), a region is considered under water stress when it uses 20 percent of its renewable freshwater resources. When this figure reaches 40 percent, stress is considered severe.
According to the European Commission, around 30 percent of Europe’s population and 20 percent of the continent’s territory face water shortages every year, euronews writes. The high temperatures of these days are worsening the water crisis in Europe, as the heat wave is drying out the land and significantly reducing river flows.
Behind this situation lies a water system that has been under great pressure for years. Decades of pollution, overexploitation and mismanagement of water resources have damaged rivers, lakes and freshwater reserves, leaving the European Union with increasingly less capacity to respond to the current water crisis.
The European Union presented the Water Scarcity Strategy in June 2025, with the aim of making Europe more resilient and better prepared to face the water crisis. The strategy aims to protect the water cycle, promote a more water-efficient economy, and ensure access to clean and affordable water. “Water is no longer just an investment in the environment.
It is an investment in people’s well-being, Europe’s food security, public health, economic competitiveness and sustainability.
If Europe underinvests in water today, the consequences will not be felt first by institutions, but by ordinary people,” said Thomas Bajada, MEP from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and rapporteur for the Water Scarcity Strategy in the European Parliament. Why are Europe’s water resources dwindling?
“Water stress” in Europe is the result of a number of factors, one of which is the heavy dependence on water for agriculture, industry and energy production. This has led to the overexploitation of water resources and increased pressure on natural reserves.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) reports that total water abstraction in the European Union has decreased by 14 percent between 2000 and 2023. However, the amount of water used remains high and, in many areas, exceeds natural renewal rates. As a result, river flows and groundwater reserves have decreased, leaving less and less water available for the system.
Pressure is also being added by emerging water-intensive industries, particularly semiconductor manufacturing and data centers. These activities are further increasing demand for water at a time when resources are already under pressure. One way to reduce dependence on natural resources is to reuse wastewater.
However, Europe currently recycles only about 2.4 percent of it, leaving a huge untapped potential for saving and managing water more efficiently. The problem is compounded by losses in public supply networks. Around 23 percent of treated water in Europe is lost due to poor management and outdated infrastructure, significantly reducing the amount of water that reaches consumers.
“Across the European Union, we are still losing large amounts of treated drinking water through outdated pipelines before it reaches people’s taps,” Bajada warned. The EurEau report for 2026 shows a slight decrease in water losses in Europe, to around 23.5 percent, compared to 24 percent in the 2021 survey.
However, member states continue to invest less than necessary in the maintenance and modernization of water supply infrastructure. Germany leads the way in investments, with around €9 billion per year, followed by France with €6.5 billion, while Slovenia invests only around €100 million.
According to the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), increased urbanization and migration are expected to increase water demand, particularly in Northern and Western Europe, making the modernization and expansion of water infrastructure even more necessary. Meanwhile, climate change is accelerating the deterioration of the situation.
Temperatures in Europe are rising by about 0.56 degrees Celsius per decade, more than double the global average rate of 0.27 degrees Celsius, according to data from Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth observation program. Drought is spreading across Europe, affecting more and more land, forests and agricultural areas.
In 2024 alone, drought affected an estimated 601,193 square kilometres of land, 33,518 square kilometres of forests and 87,567 square kilometres of agricultural land. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), droughts are expected to intensify further by 2050, also increasing the rate of water evaporation.
As water supplies dwindle, pollution is putting pressure on remaining resources, reducing the amount of clean, usable water. The EEA warns that climate change could affect groundwater quality through the interaction between pollution and overuse. “Groundwater quality can be affected by climate change through the interaction between pollution and overexploitation.
For example, if an aquifer is exploited beyond its capacity, the concentration of nutrients and chemicals can increase, as pollutants will be less diluted,” the EEA told Euronews. Water Scarcity Strategy “The Water Scarcity Strategy changes one very important thing: the way we think about water,” Bajada said.
The strategy aims to guarantee Europe’s long-term water supply through more than 50 concrete measures. According to the platform monitoring their implementation, only three measures have been completed so far. The strategy focuses on reducing excessive water use and preventing land degradation, aiming to protect the quantity and quality of water throughout its entire cycle.
In this context, the concept of “sponge infrastructure” aims to restore the natural ability of ecosystems to absorb, store, filter and gradually release water, while contributing to the protection of biodiversity. Through common water scarcity indicators and early warning systems, authorities aim to better monitor water availability and the risk of droughts.
These mechanisms are expected to help identify crises earlier and increase the preparedness of European countries to cope with them. To ensure water quality, the strategy aims to reduce pollution and remove pollutants from drinking water, with the aim of protecting public health.
Stronger implementation of the Water Framework Directive also aims to improve the ecological status of Europe’s rivers and lakes. One of the key principles of the strategy is “water efficiency first”, which aims to create an economy that uses water more wisely and reduces waste before looking for new sources, such as seawater desalination.
The EU aims to increase water efficiency by 10 percent by 2030, by expanding water reuse in agriculture, industry and public supply systems.
The strategy also provides for measures to limit water demand in high-consumption industrial and digital sectors, through more efficient planning, reducing leaks and losses in public supply networks, and strengthening controls on the use of water resources. In this regard, the Digital Water Action Plan aims to modernize water resources management through data-driven technologies.
These include smart meters, artificial intelligence-based forecasts, satellite-based soil moisture monitoring, digital irrigation systems, and early detection technologies for leaks. Bajada said that the target of increasing water efficiency by 10 percent by 2030 was a strong political signal, but should not be seen as the ultimate goal.
According to him, climate change is affecting Europe’s regions in different ways, so a single target cannot fit all countries and sectors. He called for the definition of specific targets by sector and water basin, taking into account the different needs and risks associated with agriculture, industry, public supply and energy.
Another pillar of the strategy is to promote the use of water-saving products and equipment, through the Eco-Design Regulation. The strategy also supports the establishment of water tariffs based on the quantity consumed and citizens’ ability to pay, with the aim of guaranteeing fair access to water and promoting its more careful use.
Member States are expected to inform citizens about the state of water resources at national level and how they are managed. This aims to increase transparency and involve the public more in the design and implementation of national water plans.
For Bajada, the European Investment Bank’s 15 billion euro investment within the strategy “is a very important step”, but “is not sufficient to respond to the scale of the water challenge in Europe”. According to him, water scarcity means that families continue to have access to running water and farmers are able to continue producing food, even in the face of increasingly long droughts.
For this reason, Bajada calls for the creation of a special budget for water scarcity and for water management to remain a priority in the next Multiannual Financial Framework of the European Union. Which countries suffer the most? Southern Europe remains the most drought-affected region on the continent.
The hot and dry climate significantly increases water demand, especially in agriculture, causing this region to consume the largest share of freshwater resources, especially during the summer months. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA) report for 2025, water scarcity affected around 28 percent of Europe’s territory and 32 percent of the population in 2023.
In Southern Europe, around 30 percent of residents face permanent water stress, while during the summer this figure rises to 70 percent, due to increased demand from tourism, agriculture and public use. Pressure on water resources has led the region to increasingly rely on groundwater extraction, including fossil reserves that are not renewable on human timescales.
This is putting further pressure on groundwater reserves and increasing the risk of their depletion. Cyprus and Malta are among the most affected countries. Data for 2023 show that Cyprus used about 92.1 percent of its renewable freshwater resources, while Malta used 66.7 percent.
Both countries significantly exceeded the 40 percent WEI+ threshold, above which a territory is considered to be facing severe water stress. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), from 2020 to 2024, the impact of drought in Cyprus increased, affecting 12.9 percent of the country’s territory.
In Malta, the situation was even more severe, with drought affecting 57.1 percent of the territory in 2024, compared to just 6.5 percent in 2020. To cope with water shortages, Cyprus reuses almost all of its wastewater, while Malta only reuses about 5 to 10 percent.
Both countries have also expanded the capacity of their desalination plants, which now provide the vast majority of drinking water on the two islands. Unlike Southern Europe, Northern and Central European countries face a different pressure on water resources, but generally remain below the water stress threshold defined by the WEI+ index.
In 2023, the WEI+ index was only 0.3 percent in Sweden, 4.4 percent in Germany and 8 percent in Poland. The pressure on resources in these countries is mainly related to the high demand for water in the industrial and energy sectors.
According to the EEA, switching to cooling systems and fuels that use water more efficiently, along with the use of new technologies and the use of waste heat from power plants, could reduce water withdrawal from natural sources by up to 95 percent. What does water scarcity mean to you?
Electricity production accounts for around 33 percent of the total amount of water withdrawn from sources in Europe, making the energy sector one of the largest users of water. “Low river flows can affect electricity generation, which depends on water, in both thermal and nuclear power plants, as well as in hydropower plants.
They can also lower water levels in navigable rivers, affecting inland waterway transport,” the European Environment Agency (EEA) explained. When temperatures rise and water flows drop, power plants may be forced to reduce production or, in extreme cases, cease operations altogether.
This can directly affect the energy supply for households and industry, as is currently happening in Hungary and Romania. Such a case has also been recorded in Sweden, where the Ringhals nuclear power plant was forced to temporarily cease operations in July 2018, after the sea water temperature reached 25 degrees Celsius.
Agriculture consumes around 31% of the water extracted from springs in Europe, making it one of the most water-dependent sectors. Water scarcity causes reduced agricultural yields, exposing farmers to economic losses and other risks, and can also disrupt food supply chains.
According to the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), crop losses have already increased by more than 30% over the past decade, compared to projected trends. If this trend continues, water scarcity could contribute to long-term increases in food prices. About 21 percent of the total amount of water taken from sources is used for public water supply.
This is the sector where citizens feel the impact of water shortages most directly, as authorities can impose restrictions on its use in everyday activities, such as washing, hygiene, cooking and watering gardens. These constraints are particularly acute in Mediterranean regions, where increased tourism significantly increases water demand during the summer months.
According to the EEA, tourists consume between 300 and 2,000 liters of water per person per day, compared to around 125 liters consumed by the average local resident. “While large cities generally have drought plans and prioritize drinking water supplies, smaller municipalities and households that rely on private wells are often more vulnerable to water shortages.
In some countries, a significant portion of the population depends on private water sources, which are less regulated and more exposed to water shortages,” the EEA told Euronews. Industry accounts for around 14 percent of the total amount of water withdrawn from sources in the European Union.
Water shortages can disrupt the activity of sectors that consume large amounts of water, such as the steel, paper and food industries, forcing in certain cases even the temporary cessation of production. The consequences are not limited to production. Water shortages can reduce companies’ revenues, make it more difficult to repay loans and increase risks to financial stability.
According to the European Central Bank, about 34 percent of loans to businesses in the eurozone finance sectors that are significantly dependent on water resources, making the water crisis a risk for the financial system as well. /Telegraph