Mediterranean Water Scarcity and Drought interim Report

Technical report on water scarcity and drought management in the Mediterranean and the Water Framework Directive. Produced by the MEDITERRANEAN WATER SCARCITY & DROUGHT WORKING GROUP (MED WS&D WG) - April 2007 –

The Mediterranean report is based on the EU document produced in June 2006. It has been prepared by the Mediterranean WS&D WG, in the framework of the MED-EU Water Initiative / Water Framework Directive Joint Process.

The document is a technical report which consists of five parts. The introduction presents the situation of water scarcity and drought in the Mediterranean region and the linkages between the WFD and Water scarcity. In chapter I, the definitions and assessments of the different phenomena are described. Chapter II reports on planning and management of drought events. Chapter III deals with long-term imbalances in supply and demand. The conclusions and recommendations are presented in Chapter IV.

The main objective of this report is to present the Mediterranean specificities regarding water scarcity situations and droughts events and the role of the WFD. Examples of strategies and measures taken in the Mediterranean region for addressing WS&D illustrate the different sections of the reports. In addition, the specificities of the WFD implementation related to WS&D are identified for non-EU countries.