Water Framework Directive
Recent events in the continued implementation of the Water Framework Directive include:
The basic objectives to be achieved as set out in Article 4(1) can be summarised as follows:
- prevent deterioration in the status of surface water bodies;
- protect, enhance and restore all bodies of surface water with the aim of achieving good surface water status by 2015;
- prevent deterioration of the status of groundwater bodies;
- protect, enhance and restore all bodies of groundwater with the aim of achieving good groundwater status by 2015;
- prevent or limit the input of pollutants to groundwater and reverse any significant and sustained upward trend in the concentration of pollutants in groundwater;
- comply with European wide measures against priority and priority hazardous substances; and
- achieve compliance with any relevant standards and objectives for protected areas
The Directive requires Member States to put in place systems for managing their water environments, based on natural river basin districts and underpinned by extensive environmental monitoring and scientific investigation, called "river basin management". It further requires Member States to take account of the need to recover the costs of water services as a way of encouraging the sustainable use of water resources.
The Directive repeals and replaces a number of older EC water Directives and incorporates the remaining existing water Directives (the Bathing Water, Nitrates and Urban Waste Water Treatment Directives) into its framework through its protected areas provisions. The "Natura" Directives on the protection of Habitats and Birds are also linked to this Directive by virtue of the protected area provisions.
The Water Framework Directive has two key components:
- it requires us to manage our water environment on the basis of units that make sense in environmental terms - River Basin Districts that include all interdependent rivers, lochs, estuaries, coastal waters and associated underground waters. A plan will have to be drawn up for each River Basin District setting out where there are environmental problems and what will be done to tackle them;
- it also requires that, for the first time, we control all impacts - physical, polluting and otherwise - on the water environment with the aim of achieving 'good' ecological status for most rivers etc by specified deadlines - 2015 in most cases. Status is determined on the basis of ecology because the Directive requires that quality is determined not just by the chemical composition of waters but by the fish, plant and other life that inhabit it.
So what does the Water Framework Directive do?
It is a complex and lengthy piece of legislation with 26 Articles and 11 annexes - it is not susceptible to easy encapsulation. However, its central purpose is clear. It will ensure that for the first time the water environment across Europe is managed in a co-ordinated and sensible manner. Moreover, it requires that all activities that impact adversely on the quality (using quality in its widest sense) of the water environment are controlled. Our rivers and lochs are the lifeblood of our communities - the Water Framework Directive will ensure their continued good health for future generations.
While the vast majority of our rivers, lochs, estuaries, coastal waters and groundwaters are of high quality, problems do exist. Moreover, what the bald statistics about quality don't tell us is the range of uses and users of our waters and the value of them to Scotland. Sources of drinking water; important habitats for many birds, fish and other animals; an important resource for many important industries; a focus for leisure and recreation - only some of the ways in which we depend on our rivers, lochs and other water bodies. We should also bear in mind the crucial importance to Scotland's image abroad of its clean cold lochs and fast flowing vibrant rivers teeming with salmon and trout. How might tourism and business suffer if we allowed their quality to be diminished?
Crucial to an understanding of the Water Framework Directive is an appreciation of the fact that although it is concerned with 'water' its scope is not restricted to what happens on or in water. The quality of any river, body of groundwater or other body of water will be determined not just by what happens within its banks but also by what happens on the land around it. A spill of polluting material - e.g. oil - quite remote from a river may well find its way there with devastating effects. The construction of a housing development on a flood plain may create exacerbated flooding problems downstream. For that reason, the scope of the WFD is not restricted to rivers or lochs or coastal waters - rather it requires consideration of any human intervention that could affect the quality of water, wherever that intervention takes place.
The Directive does that by requiring the management of our water environment based on natural river basins. A river basin is the area of land from which all water flows towards the sea through a series of burns, rivers and lochs entering the sea at a single point. Sometimes known as catchments these river basins are the building blocks of the WFD. They may be managed individually or combined together with other catchments but each catchment must be managed as a whole, together with their associated groundwaters - underground water below the soil, often in distinct layers of rock or aquifers
For each River Basin District (a single catchment or number of them combined) a strategic management plan must be drawn up. This plan will establish an environmental objective - a quality target - for each water body. A water body could be a river or loch or part of a river or loch or groundwater. The Directive sets a default objective of 'good' status - although variations from that are allowed. It also requires that no deterioration in status be allowed - a provision that will be particularly applicable to Scotland given the already good condition of much of our waters, although again here derogations are allowed in certain limited circumstances.
These environmental objectives are based on ecology. This means that the plants and animals (fish as well as insects and other invertebrates) that live in our natural waters will become the principal indicators of success at protecting and improving the water environment. Both chemical and physical conditions must be right for them to flourish. Ultimately, what is good for them will also be good for us.
Having set the environmental objective the plan must set out how that objective will be achieved. If a particular loch or stretch of coastal water is damaged or polluted - what needs to be done to retrieve the situation? The plan will also contain a comprehensive analysis of the pressures on water quality in that river basin.
Having established the plan and having put the measures in place to achieve the objectives the next stage in the process is comprehensive monitoring to check that the objectives have been met. Thereafter, the process of planning, action and monitoring starts again.
The above is a summary of the Directive, the following pages will go into more detail on the implementation and operation.