An Introduction to the WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE

(A River Friend Series Reference Book)

WHY THE BOOK?-"WATER IS NOT A COMMERCIAL PRODUCT LIKE ANY OTHER BUT IS A HERITAGE WHICH MUST BE PROTECTED, DEFENDED AND TREATED AS SUCH [i.e. as Heritage]."

Just by existing, each of us makes rivers worse. Each person drinks, so uses up water, though some re-appears as polluted waste water. This may go quickly or slowly to the sea, and be slow or very slow to evaporate back into the sky as clouds and eventually rain. Each plant and animal also needs water, and again only some re-appears. Much is lost to the air (from where it eventually re-appears as rain, but probably not in the same place). Much, again, goes to the sea. Gone are the days when people went out with buckets and came back with the nice clean water they needed. People are just too many. When regulation fails, famine and disease strike. Water policy must be there to keep the population healthy, and transport and industry working well. The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) applies to all of us. It is the best shot by the EU to make our brooks, rivers, lakes and groundwater better: to give us cleaner water, safer water resources, and less damaged water patterns and processes-and a very good shot it is too! What does the Directive recommend and require? Each nation (country, Member State) was required to transpose the Directive into its own national laws. As with much EU policy, the actions did not have to be done at once. It was to be brought in over time. And as with many laws, national or EU, not all parts are given the same weight or urgency by different groups of its audience. But all are in fact LAW...