Water Demand Has a Threshold

Abstract

The limits to sustainable development in the supply and use of freshwater resources have been reached during the last decades in many parts of Europe: in spite of limited growth in specific domestic consumption in the most industrialised countries, many factors show that in the same field a lot of countries will demand in the next years more and more freshwater resources. As a matter of fact it is believed that all the countries with improving life conditions will use more water consumption facilities and, in addition, an increase in water demand for irrigation and industries has to be expected. These tendencies are however in conflict with the inadequacy of water resources in terms of both quality and quantity: this is true both in the Southern regions of Europe, and in the most industrialized parts of the Central and Northern Europe in terms of water resource degradation. The misuse and overuse of the resources have resulted in long term damage such as groundwater contamination, both by polluting concentrated sources, widespread agricultural pollution, heavy pollution of rivers and estuaries and salt water intrusion into groundwater.