EU pledges $17bn to tackle water shortages as Austria innovates

The European Union has pledged to tackle water shortages and droughts by investing $17 billion via its European Investment Bank (EIB). 

The loans are set to finance projects that reduce water pollution, prevent water wastage and support innovative businesses in the water sector.

The EIB will spread the pledged investments between 2025 and 2027, with the aim of mobilizing further $28.5 billion from commercial investors. 

The financing will target large infrastructure projects, those which restore or use natural ecosystems that manage water supplies and emerging water technologies.

Meanwhile, across the EU member states are trying to find new ways to tackle the dwindling water supply. 

The Austrian village of Reisenberg is installing a chemical-free, natural filtration plant which aims to transform a previously unsuited water source into fresh drinking water with the help of mechanical filters. 

"Our summers get hotter and drier and so we have to use every drinking water ressource for our consumers," Forian Zach from the filtration plant operator EVN told CGTN Europe.

A few kilometers from Reisenberg, the city of Vienna started construction on what is set to be the world's largest drinking water tank. 

Local projects like these can ensure there's enough drinking water but they don't tackle the source of the problem. 

In Europe, high population density and the over-extraction of natural water sources are leading to shortages, which the European Environment Agency says affect around a third of the EU.

The EU Commission announced it will propose measures to improve resilience to water stress, including minimum standards for data centres to save water. But it scaled back plans included in an earlier draft of the strategy for new EU subsidies to farmers who invest in saving water.

In May, the European Parliament had called on the EU Commission to introduce water extraction targets based on risk assessments. 

"We need to know the quantity of water that we have and hence how much water we are using," Thomas Bajada, the parliament's rapporteur for the water resilience strategy, said. "That is why the parliament is calling for water efficiency and abstraction targets across the EU."

For the past 25 years, the EU has regulated its freshwater via the Water Framework Directive (WFD) which member states failed to comply with. Only about a quarter of EU surface water bodies reach required purity levels.

According to the new water resilience strategy, the WFD will remain the compass for action. But for how long? 

"The water framework directive officially ends by 2027," Florian Borgwardt from Vienna's BOKU University told CGTN. "And as the targets are not fulfilled to this date it will be interesting how this will be managed in the future."

As long as EU targets are not fully enforced it is often up to locals initiatives to ensure there's enough drinking water. This is something that's becoming increasingly difficult given rising temperatures and melting glaciers.