Executive summary
Executive summary
Action on environment and climate goals has received significant attention within the Eastern Partnership (EaP) initiative. As a specific regional dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy, the EaP aims to strengthen and deepen the political and economic relations between the EU, its Member States and the six partner countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia; the Republic of Moldova (herein after referred to as Moldova), and Ukraine. The EaP is also geared towards delivering on global commitments, including the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN (UN SDGs) 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals. Long-lasting efforts have been made within the EaP framework to improve the evidence base for environmental decision-making in line with the European Commission's Communication 'Towards a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS)'. In 2011, the EU initiated a project on SEIS implementation in EaP countries, which has seen two phases up to 2020. This demand-based project, implemented by the European Environment Agency (EEA), has supported EaP countries in accessing EU and European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet) knowledge and experience. Water was one of the priority thematic areas of cooperation. This report is one of the results of the implementation of Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) principles in EaP countries. It presents a regional assessment of freshwater availability and wateruse efficiency based on seven selected United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) water indicators chosen in agreement with the EaP countries. The selection of the indicators was mainly driven by data availability across all EaP countries. Since the selected indicators are only capable of addressing limited issues concerning the protection of water resources and sustainable and integrated water resources management (IWRM) by the EaP countries at the regional level, this report does not address all environmental impacts of pressures and the effectiveness of policy responses (measures) in the water area. Primarily, at the regional level, it quantifies trends and current renewable water resources, water use by economic sector, economic
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water use efficiency, efficiency of the water-supply industry and the pollution of surface water. From the hydrological perspective, all large rivers in the EaP countries, for example, Vistula, Neman, Daugava, Danube, Dnieper, Dniester, Prut, Aras and Kura, are either transboundary or share a basin, including with EU Member States. Three indicators have been used for the regional assessment of renewable freshwater resources (RWR) over the years: RWR per capita; dependency ratio; and water stress. Georgia holds the highest RWR per capita on average with 13 500 m3/capita/year, whereas Moldova has the lowest at 1 800 m3/capita/year. This indicator shows an increase trend in RWR per capita in all countries except Azerbaijan, where the total RWR decreased by 27 % between 2000-2017, whereas the population increased (in 2000, it was 2 902 m3/capita/year, up from 1 732 m3/capita/year in 2017). The dependency ratio, which measures what part of RWR flows from upstream/neighbouring countries to downstream, is the highest in Azerbaijan and high in Belarus. Azerbaijan's dependency ratio is greater than 70 %. In Belarus, it is around 38 %. There is insufficient information available for estimating the recharge, storage and discharge of groundwater in aquifers that are lying between countries. Even though the annual RWR per capita in the region indicates there is no water stress, Armenia and Azerbaijan are facing severe water-scarcity conditions due to over-abstraction of freshwater for agriculture and a high rate of water losses in water. In extreme conditions, such as in 2017, Armenia exploited 61 % of available renewable water resources while Azerbaijan exploited 72 %. On average, the water exploitation index is above 40 % in both Armenia and Azerbaijan. The main reasons for excessive water use are inefficient irrigation in Azerbaijan and over-abstraction of water for aquaculture in Armenia. Surface waters represent the largest portion of water demand in Azerbaijan, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia, at 89 %, 85 % and 75 %, respectively (average 2000-2017). Belarus and Armenia use almost the same share of both groundwater and surface
Water availability, surface water quality and water use in the Eastern Partnership countries
