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EUROPE
The News N° 25
FRom one conTinenT To anoTHeR
4
th
International Conference ”Water in Mountains”
The mountain people are gettingmobilized to anticipate
the effects of climate change on water resources
The “4
th
International Conference on
Water in Mountains", organized by
Asters (Upper-Savoy Natural Space
Conservancy), the Endowment Fund
”Living Mountain” and the Internatio-
nal Office for Water (IOWater), took
place on 8, 9 and 10 October 2014, in
Megeve (Upper Savoy - France).
Following previous meetings in 2002, 2006
and 2010, this conference issued an alert to
the need to quickly adopt strategies to adapt
to the impacts of global warming on water
resources in the mountains, which are areas
where the main large European rivers Ebro,
Danube, Po, Rhine, Rhone, andVistula ... and
their major tributaries, originate.
Global warming now seems to be una-
voidable and the European mountains
are already among the first victims!
With the decrease in snow cover and glacier
melt, thewater regimes of allmajor European
rivers coming frommountains are now chan-
ging.
However, the flow regularity of these rivers is
crucial for the supply of drinking water to
populations, and for the economic develop-
ment at the foothills and in the plains (hydro-
power, inland navigation, irrigation, tourism
or still the cooling of thermal or nuclear
power plants...).
Meetingwater needs in the future and for all
purposes is thus everybody's business.
Water management in the upper river
basins is a strategic issue for themoun-
tain people, but also for the popula-
tions and economies… in the plains!
It is thus necessary to act quickly if
we want our mountains to remain
“Europe’sWater Towers”.
Flood frequency and intensity will greatly
increase in autumn, winter and spring, as
well as summer droughts.
Climate change inmountains will also gene-
rate severe erosion, landslides, degradation
in river quality and an increase inwater tem-
perature. Hydropower production could be
reduced by 15%; cooling of thermal and
nuclear power plants will be more difficult;
river navigation will have to adapt; competi-
tion betweenwater useswill become fiercer.
Time is runningout:
wemust now identify
and model these changes at local level in
order to undertake the field actions that are
urgently needed!
Field experiments were presented at
the ”Conference on Water in Moun-
tains”. They work and produce results
that can be replicated;
we must dissemi-
nate them:
l
First,
saving water and facilitating
recycling:
leak detection in drinking
water supply systems, the reuseof treated
wastewater, groundwater recharge, pro-
moting the efficient use of water must
become a priority.
l
Next,
rethinking the management of
water, lakes, wetlands and moun-
tain soils,
taking into account the strate-
gic constraints of the supply of water to
the population and agricultural, industrial
and tourist economies at the foothills and
in plains downstream. We must develop
”a new culture of risk”.
l
Finally,
better recognizing the role of
mountains for the community as a
whole from upstream to down-
stream areas, under integrated
basinpolicies.
Thiswill require
strengthening the institu-
tional and financial mechanisms
and
refocusing them towards thesenewpriorities,
as in the case of
the new French Law
”GEMAPI” (Management of Aquatic
Ecosystems and FloodPrevention).
Plan-
ning must be made in the basins of large
rivers and based on strong intersectoral and
international cooperation when river basins
are transboundary as in the case of the
Rhone, with French-Swiss cooperation.
With theWater Framework Directive of
2000 and its related Directives, the
EuropeanUnionhas an effective tool to
truly apply these adaptation strategies.
Moreover, it requires from theMember
States that they incorporate appro-
priate measures in the coming Basin
Management Plans and Programs of
Measures 2016 - 2021, then2021-2027.
Let's quickly implement them!
The participants also decided to establish a
”Network of Water Stakeholders in
Mountains”
to sustain their work between
two ”Megeve” conferences, to exchange and
promote these good practices.
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© IOWater - C.Runel
© IOWater - C.Runel
