chemical status due to the excessive concentration of nitrate in 2009 (EEA 2012e). For more than 50 per cent of these groundwater bodies, excessive nitrate concentration was the main cause, with a significant portion of nitrates coming from agricultural land in densely populated catchment areas (Colombo et al. 2015; Grizzetti at al. 2015), followed by Groundwater Directive’s Annex II pollutants (other common groundwater pollutants) (34 per cent) and pesticides (20 per cent) (EEA 2012e).


In Central Asia, the major problem is salinization of surface water and groundwater, due to intensive development of irrigated farming and effluents from municipal and industrial sewers. At the end of the 1960s, water salinity did not exceed 1 gram per litre (g/l), even in the lower reaches of rivers (Sokolov 2009). The level of mineralization in the waters of the Syr Darya ranges from 0.45-0.6 g/l in the upper flow to 1.1–1.4 g/l in the middle flow (excluding the Fergana valley) (Valentini 2004), to 3 g/l in the lower reaches (SIC ICWC 2011). Owing to the state of disrepair of the drainage system, the groundwater table has risen everywhere and become contaminated with high levels of salts and other minerals (Mukhamedzhanov and Nerozin 2008; Mukhamedzhanov 2007; Baknell 2003). Total dissolved salts in the groundwater range from 0.5 g/l to 6 g/l. In some areas, total dissolved salts in drinking water are found at 3.5 g/l, with the salt limit set by the Uzbek government at 1 g/l (Small et al. 2001). About 65 per cent of drinking water samples taken in Karakalpakstan proved not to correspond to standards (Small et al. 2001). Besides a decline in crop productivity, waterlogging leads to bacterial and chemical (pesticide) pollution of underground sources of drinking water, resulting in a high risk of hepatitis and typhus fever outbreak (Baknell 2003). Nevertheless, the amount of pollutants discharged into freshwater bodies stabilized over the last decade and even dropped in some countries, but water quality continues to deteriorate due to unsustainable water use and restoration of production capacity (UNECE 2012).


2.6.7 Policy responses


A wide range of governance systems for sustainable freshwater management exists at national and international levels. They guide policy-making in the pan-European


region. But implementation challenges remain and vary strongly across countries, basins and in regard to particular freshwater problems. While acute pollution problems are concentrated in some hot spots only, virtually all areas of the pan-European region still experience serious problems with respect to ecological status and nutrient loads. These problems can only be resolved through better coordination between policies that target biodiversity, land use, agriculture, energy and freshwater systems, as well as chemicals and waste. Acute challenges associated with water allocation, for example in Central Asia and southern Europe, must be resolved mainly through intensified cooperation among the riparian countries of the respective catchments. This is challenging in catchments where the EU’s Water Framework Directive and other governance systems provide little political leverage, and global MEAs currently provide only general guidance, for example, water allocation is a topic in the UNECE’s Water Convention work programme.


The policy and governance system for freshwater in the pan-European region consists of three layers and is rather complex in structure, not least because the pan-European region includes around 120 international freshwater catchments. (More...100)


Firstly, most of the international legal frameworks that exist are bilateral or multilateral, covering individual international river, lake or groundwater basins. The most advanced and comprehensive of these frameworks cover the rivers Danube and Rhine. Because of clearly manifested transboundary challenges associated with navigation, water scarcity, flooding and pollution, some of these individual river basin regimes have emerged over many decades, notably in Western Europe, while others have formed more recently, for example in Central Asia.


Secondly, the EU has established a complex international freshwater governance system of its own, consisting of the WFD, which guides and organizes EU policy-making in the water sector, and several more specific directives. These include, for example, the 1991 Urban Waste Water Treatment and Nitrates Directives, the 1998 Drinking Water Directive, the


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Chapter 2: Environmental State and Trends


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