Ley del Impulso
C UATRO TIPOS DE REYES
Many human activities have an impact on water availability and quality especially in areas of high population density, concentrated industrial activ- ity and intensive agriculture. The targets of the sixth environmental action programme (‘Environ- ment 2010: our future, our choice’), as proposed by the Commission to the Council and to the Par- liament, will be as follows for 2010:
— to achieve levels of water quality that do not give rise to unacceptable effects on, or risks to, human health;
— to ensure the long-term sustainability of rates of extraction from water resources;
— to prevent the pollution of ground water from all sources.
Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000, establish- es a framework for Community action in the field of water policy and aims to establish a Communi- ty framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater in order to prevent and reduce pol- lution, promote sustainable water use, protect the aquatic environment, improve the status of aqua- tic ecosystems and mitigate the effects of floods and droughts.
The water supply analysed in this section is water supplied by specialised economic units engaged in the collection, purification and distribution of water — i.e. the public water supply. This type of water supply should be distinguished from self- supply, which is the abstraction of water by the user for his/her own final use. This is the form of sup- ply used particularly for the domestic sector (households) and economic sectors which corre- spond to division 41 (NACE/ISIC) — i.e. industry, the agricultural sector, etc.
It was decided to present the data calculated per capita and not the total values reported by each country, in order to allow comparisons to be
R e g i o n s : S t a t i s t i c a l y e a r b o o k 2 0 0 2 127 10-Environment EN 3/10/02 16:38 Página 127
drawn between regions. This calculation uses the total resident population of the regions and not the population actually covered by the public sup- ply, on account of a lack of data for some coun- tries. As a result, the quantity of water delivered per capita may be underestimated for some re- gions when a significant fraction of the popula- tion is not connected to the distribution network and supplies itself with water.
Map 10.1 shows the amount of water actually distributed by the public network, per capita in litres per day (not including losses). The quantities distributed vary widely from country to country but also between regions within the same country, thus highlighting significant regional disparities.
In Europe, water distribution ranges at regional level from 103 litres (Dessau, DE) to 805 litres (Dytiki Makedonia, GR). On average, it stands at 216 litres per capita per day (calculated using the most recent values) and varies at national level from 79 litres (Slovenia) to 348 litres (Ireland), closely followed by Greece on 337 litres. In gen- eral, the candidate countries make less use of the public network for water distribution at 184 litres per capita per day, as against 236 litres for the EU countries.
The considerable volume of water distributed in Ireland can be explained by water losses during distribution, which are not excluded from the fig- ures and thus lead to an overestimate of the
R e g i o n s : S t a t i s t i c a l y e a r b o o k 2 0 0 2
128
ENVIRONMENT
10
Total public water supply per capita
in litres (latest year available)
1998 — NUTS 2 > 320 251–320 181–250 111–180 ≤110
Data not available
B, BG: National level; UK: NUTS1. IRL, CZ: 1994; FIN, S, LT: 1995; NL: 1996. A, SI, SK: 1997; DK, EL, L, P: 1999; PL: 2000.
Statistical data: Eurostat. Database: REGIO © EuroGeographics, for the administrative boundaries Cartography: Eurostat — GISCO, 07/2002
Map 10.1
quantities actually distributed. In Greece, unlike most of the countries studied, the majority of pub- lic network supplies do not go to the domestic sec- tor but to other economic sectors which are heav- ier consumers of water. Thus, in the case of Dytiki Makedonia, only 32 % of the water distributed is destined for the domestic sector, which perhaps explains the extreme level of consumption in com- parison to other regions.
Some regions stand out on account of the low vol- ume of water distributed by the public sector: these are found in some of the new German Län- der(Dessau, Chemnitz, Thüringen), Norte in Por-
tugal and Slovenia. In Portugal, self-supplies are undoubtedly one of the reasons for this situation as only 77 % of the population is connected to the
public network in the Norte region, the lowest fig- ure in a country where the average is 90 %. In Germany, on the other hand, virtually 100 % of the population is connected in all regions, includ- ing the new Länder.
The explanation for the situation in Spain is complicated by the fact that in addition to tourist activity and the nature of the public water- distribution system (imports/exports of water between regions), desalinated sea water is also used for the water supply or self-supplies. In France, the price of the distributed water is a significant factor for some regions. In the regions of the west and north of France, for example, where the prices are highest, the quantities deliv- ered by the public sector are the lowest per capita.
R e g i o n s : S t a t i s t i c a l y e a r b o o k 2 0 0 2 129
NB: CZ, IRL: 1994; FIN, LT, S: 1995; NL: 1996; A, SI, SK: 1997;
DK, EL, L, P: 1999; PL: 2000; CZ: old version of statistical regions (1997).
200 400 600 800 1 000
Graph 10.1 — Public water supply per capita at national level as well as regional extremes, 1998
Düsseldorf Dessau Cantabria Comunidad de Madrid Corse Bretagne Dytiki Makedonia Attiki Zeeland Flevoland Steiermark Salzburg Madeira Norte Uusimaa Itä-Suomi Västsverige Mellersta Norrland Stredocesk´y Praha Közép-Magyarország Dél- Dunántúl Slaskie Podkar- packie Bucuresti Nord-Est Bratislavsk´y V´ychodné Slovensko
Public water supply per capita (l/day)
CEC B BG D DK EE E IRL LT L LV SI UK F EL NL A P FIN S CZ HU PL RO SK 10-Environment EN 3/10/02 16:38 Página 129
Graph 10.1 shows that significant variations can also be observed within the same country. In Romania, the Bucharest region makes 2.5 times more use of the public sector than the North-East region. In Austria, the national average is 211 litres per capita per day, but at a regional level the public network distributes between 151 litres (Steiermark) and 321 litres (Salzburg). The mini- mum distribution is underestimated by around 30 litres as only three-quarters of the population is connected to the public network in some regions. Nevertheless, distribution can vary by over 100 litres between regions. Tourism partly explains these variations for the Tirol and Salzburg re- gions, as the increase in the population (and thus the demand for water) as a result of tourism is not taken into account when per capita water distrib- ution is calculated.
In the north of Europe, the regions of Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and Latvia have rel- atively uniform levels of water distribution, at around 200 litres per capita. The only country which stands out is Estonia with a figure of 136 litres.
For a number of countries, the capital regions prove to be the largest consumers of water, par- ticularly in the candidate countries — the Czech Republic, Romania or Slovakia — but also in Fin- land. A number of explanations can be put for- ward, such as the fact that in these regions of high population density there is little self-supply, as borne out by the high rate of connection to the network, or that the standard of living is some- times higher in these areas with the result that households in particular use more water.