Scientists fear another catastrophic summer for crops as drought conditions worsen in Europe.
ADVERTISEMENT
The latest report by the European Drought Observatory paints a worrying picture of drought across southern, eastern, and central Europe.
The Iberian Peninsula faces the most critical conditions with several red warnings, the result of alternating periods of drought and intense winter and spring precipitation.
In 2023, Spain already had the largest territory affected by drought, at 34,000 square km, followed by Poland with 24,000 and Lithuania with 20,000.
At the same time, orange warnings are present in swathes of Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, Belarus, most of Ukraine, as well as Ireland, Scotland and a few spots in Germany and France.
Cyprus faces critical situation
The increasing use of water resources doesn't offer relief.
According to the latest Water Exploitation Index, freshwater consumption has hit a record high of 5.8% of total available resources. Values above 20% are generally considered a sign of water scarcity.
Cyprus faces by far the most critical situation, with a 71% use of freshwater resources, followed by Malta and Romania with 34% and 21% respectively.
Latvia, Croatia, Sweden, Slovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Finland and Luxembourg all recorded values of the WEI+ index under 1%, indicating they were not under water stress conditions.
The water consumption culprits
Looking at the trend over the 2012-2022 decade, Italy reported the highest growth rate in freshwater use with an increase of nearly 7%, followed by Turkey at almost 6% and Malta at 4%.
"By mid-century, the frequency and intensity of heatwaves and drought are projected to increase over most parts of Europe", says the European Environment Agency.
"It is therefore important that land management practices are adequately adjusted in a timely manner and that the EU and national adaptation strategies are effectively implemented."
'Wastewater is not a problem'
At their latest gathering, the Med9 countries — France, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain — floated ideas to tackle drought, like smart irrigation systems, crop-protection technologies, water conservation systems, as well as genetically modified crops.
But the European Investment bank has the key is to step up the recycling of wastewater.
"More than 80% of wastewater is wasted," said the bank's water expert Maria Diamanti.
"Wastewater is not a problem. It is a highly valuable source of water, nutrients and energy. We need to change how we treat it and make wastewater resource recovery a priority."