Municipalities are still responsible for water supply wastewater treatment and maintenance of water bodies, although they might have delegated those tasks to water boards or association, whose members they are. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) will lead to improvement of groundwater quality and quantity, surface water quality and will have an influence on water supply, the sewage service and cost recovery. It was necessary to inform the municipalities and local stakeholders about the changes and scope of the WFD. The municipalities in the partner regions already have to deal with problems concerning flooding, rainwater management, erosion, managing heavy rainfall-events due to climate change and old-fashioned pipe systems. The occurrence of these events and the consequences of the WFD for water supply, sewage service and water management in general need to be discussed under the umbrella of the possibilities of the implementation of WFD and their influence on the sectors agriculture, tourism and spatial planning.

After stakeholder mapping as a first step, the next was to describe the current situation by discussing causes and impacts, which are: diffuse pollution, water structure heavily modified, lack of biology, pressure by wastewater treatment plants and other point sources, dyke building, pressures by ground water extraction. Referring to the WFD the defined objective for all water bodies is the good ecological status (GES) in 2015 (quality, structure, quantity, cost recovery). To achieve this, the stakeholders discussed relevant measurses and their cost-efficiency, for example deconstruction of migration obstacles, improved wastewater treatment, sustainable rainwater management, moderate water maintenance, hydraulic engineering measures, renaturation, sustainable water extraction and use, co-operation with farmers and of course information and education of the water users.

For the outcome of the regional workshops, please take a look at the 5 regions sites.