Preservation and management of freshwater resources in Europe
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- See Doc. 6452, report of the Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities, Rapporteur : Mr Pistre. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 28 June 1991.
- Thesaurus
1. The Assembly is convinced of the importance of freshwater resources and the factors affecting them, and of the need to control their conservation, storage and distribution, for economic development as well as for the daily life of the human community.
2. It is aware that there is still some lively controversy about the effects of natural cyclical phenomena and those caused by human interference in the hydrological system, such as the construction of big dams and the large-scale exploitation of underground water.
3. It is also convinced that a pan-European policy is essential to ensure the preservation and management of water resources in Europe, and anxious to continue and further develop the work undertaken over the last twenty years at the Council of Europe, often on the initiative of the Parliamentary Assembly.
4. It stresses the role which the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly should play in drawing up guidelines for a pan-European policy on the management of water resources.
5. The Assembly therefore instructs the Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities, together with other relevant committees :
5.1 to organise a pan-European interparliamentary conference on the subject, which representatives of the local and regional authorities of Europe and of industry, specialists, NGOs and scientific bodies would attend ;
5.2 to seek appropriate support at national and European level for an awareness campaign ;
5.3 to participate in all activities being carried out by other bodies of the Council of Europe in this connection ;
5.4 to submit a report to the Assembly on these matters in 1993, including an inventory of the data available or to be collected, in order to submit an action plan for a pan-European policy for the management and preservation of freshwater resources.
