Translation of "économies d'eau " (French → English) :

The Council’s conclusions of 25 June 2013[37] state that the post-2015 framework should integrate the economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainable development in a balanced way to promote basic living standards (including water and sanitation), the drivers of the “green economy” and the sustainable use, management and protection of natural resources.

Considers that integrated water resources management should comprise strategies for the improvement of water use efficiency, water saving, rationalisation and limitation of water consumption, and improved consumer awareness concerning sustainable water consumption, and that it should respond to issues concerning the collection and storage of rainwater in natural and artificial reservoirs, as well as to those relating to the risk and impact of floods and droughts; considers that action should be encouraged to establish an effective hierarchy of water uses and recalls that a demand-side approach should be preferred when managing water res ...[+++]ources;

Saving water also means saving energy, as extracting, transporting and treating water comes at a high energy cost.

Providing water and sanitation for all in developing countries, now and in the future, is a demanding challenge. It has to be addressed in the broader context of a sustainable integrated water resource management (including e.g. natural aspects of water resources systems, water uses in all sectors of the economy and for all purposes, institutional framework for management of a finite resource, spatial variation of resources and demands, water pollution).

River basins are considered as the management unit for water resources and each has a "Plan de Cuenca" (Basin Plan), whose main objectives are to achieve a highly satisfactory level of supply in quantity and quality, best possible use of the resources available through savings and more efficient management, the diversification of the resources in its origin and reduced vulnerability of water supply systems.

Whereas the billing, to occupiers of buildings, of heating, air-conditioning and hot water costs calculated, in an appropriate proportion, on the basis of actual consumption will contribute towards energy saving in the residential sector; whereas it is desirable that occupants of such buildings should be enabled to regulate their own consumption of heat, cold and hot water; whereas the recommendations and resolutions adopted by the Council on the billing of heating and hot water costs (6) have been applied in only two Member States; whereas a significant proportion of heating, air-conditioning and hot water costs are still being bille ...[+++]d on the basis of factors other than energy consumption;