New EU law to tackle groundwater pollution

Although Europe is one of the world's economically most advanced regions, with most Europeans taking clean water for granted, lack of access to safe drinking-water and poor sanitation still threatens the health of millions of people in European countries. Out of roughly 877 million people living in Europe, almost 140 million do not have a household connection to a drinking-water supply, 85 million do not have improved sanitation and over 41 million do not have access to a safe drinking-water supply.

All pollution in water, whether injected by industry, agriculture or households, returns back and may cause damage to human health or the environment. However, this critical situation rarely hits the headlines as it is often overshadowed by water-related problems in other parts of the world.

One of the main EU solutions rests with the groundwater-protection directive, shifting the focus from "at the tap" to "at the source." The new groundwater directive is designed to help meet the overall targets of the EU's Framework Water Directive which dates back to the year 2000. Groundwater, acting as a prime reservoir, supplies 75 percent of the EU's public drinking water. However, it is estimated that 800,000 people in France, 850,000 in the UK and 2.5 million in Germany are drinking water with nitrate concentrations above the permitted EU limit.