Translation of "L'eau d'amont ou eau fluviale " (French → English) :

14. Urges the EU, in a context of regional water scarcity, to step up its assistance in the field of water management within the ambit of the EU Environment and Water Initiative and to explore, as a way to address energy scarcity in upstream states, further options for solar and wind energy, which could help rural communities on a small scale; considers it regrettable that, to date, the EU Water Governance Project has largely focused on water quality, which is important but less relevant to the situation in Central Asia than issues of sharing and allocation of water resources; in particular, notes that hydroelectric energy and water re ...[+++]sources projects in upstream states Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have led to increased regional tensions with Central Asian downstream countries; points out that the EU has considerable expertise in international water law and that it should therefore promote the establishment of a sustainable cooperative order for water governance, grounded in treaty-level international law;

Since the Ukraine is part of the Danube and Vistula basin, the framework for Community action in the field of water policy is applicable to the whole basin, taking into account the planning and execution of measures to ensure protection and sustainable use of water in the framework of the river basin.

With the objective of ensuring good water status, this directive requires all waters within each river basin to be managed as a whole, taking into account upstream-downstream interactions.

Transboundary cooperation over water resources is becoming increasingly important in many developing regions, where growing population and changing consumption patterns create tensions on both water availability and quality among upstream and downstream users.

In applying the principles, certain areas of integrated management need to receive special emphasis, such as integration between land and water uses, between upstream and downstream areas within river basins, between water quantity and quality aspects, and between social and environmental aspects.

The Africa-EU Partnership on water affairs and sanitation, launched at the WSSD in the context of the EU Water Initiative, will be the framework for EU efforts to make more sustainable use of available and finite water resources, to meet basic water and sanitation needs and contribute to improving water resources management at local, river basin, national and transboundary levels.