The programme

The task
By now everyone has recognised the need and usefulness of sustainable water management. Various international treaties concerning the Meuse and Rhine underline the importance of changing the way we think about water. Water management can no longer be regarded as purely a technical affair; it is a spatial issue in which technology plays a role. Water must be given room again, be allowed to expand onto adjacent land. In areas where land is heavily used, water will have to fit into the existing use of space and be combined with housing, recreation, the landscape and nature conservation. Water must no longer be an afterthought in spatial planning; it must be one of the guiding principles. We must furthermore no longer deny that water follows its own laws: it flows from high to low, and all the various forms it takes in a catchment area are every bit as inter- connected as the veins and arteries of the human circulatory system. A change in the water management in Charleroi in southern Belgium may have consequences for both the quantity and the quality of water in Rotterdam, for example.

It is that concern for quality which has caused the European Union to pursue its policy on water at the level of the catchment area. The Water Framework Directive obliges the Member States to work with one another on drafting and implementing catchment area management plans. Efforts to improve water quality are intricately bound up with water quantity, as it is to some extent the quality of the water that determines whether or not water can be incorporated into spatial planning or stored temporarily. Polluted or heavily polluted water leaves behind a residue of sludge after temporary storage; one consequence is that cattle must no longer be allowed to graze in the temporary retention areas for public health reasons.

If sustainable water management is to succeed in turning water into our friend rather than our enemy, the Member States, the authorities involved and the interest groups and citizens concerned must begin by tackling water problems at the source. The European Union has moved beyond the stage where problems can be shifted to some other place or put off until some other time. All that does is saddle other regions or future generations with much higher costs than those associated with tackling problems at the source. It is only when they shoulder their responsibilities that the Member States will gain the confidence they need to work constructively on the problem, both individually and collectively. That is a requirement: after all, water does not recognise administrative or political boundaries.

It may take unorthodox methods to repair the mistakes of the past and to avoid mistakes in the future. For example, in the past, the Netherlands permitted houses to be constructed in polders up to 7 metres below sea level. In the future, it is likely that some of these polders will be flooded again, with all that that implies for their inhabitants. In Germany, agricultural land is being redeveloped into retention areas for the safe temporary storage of excess water. In Belgium, Luxembourg and France, it may be necessary to plant woods on farm land to prevent precipitation from draining immediately into the Meuse or Rhine. These are only examples, but in each case the measures taken require the parties involved to make sacrifices for the good of Europe. The willingness to do so depends on their understanding the problem and the various solutions available. The Member States and the competent authorities within these states will be required to invest heavily in explaining the need for sustainable water management. It is important that they not only point out the sacrifices to be made, but even more so what water can do in return in such areas as housing, working life, recreation, cultural heritage, and landscape and nature conservation. Viewing water in this way also means a new challenge for spatial planning.

The purpose of the IRMA programme was to act on the issues raised by the five Member States within their transnational partnership. Transnational cooperation and spatial cohesion were selected as the basic principles and requirements for sustainable water management.

The programme