The present European Groundwater Memorandum formulates five key requirements for the protection of naturally formed groundwater resources and thus complements the European River Memorandum (ERM) aiming at the protection of the surface water bodies. Around 170 water suppliers, representing the water protection and drinking water interests of 188 million of people in the catchment areas of the rivers Rhine, Ruhr, Danube, Elbe, Meuse and Scheldt in 18 riparian states have collaborated. The five key requirements include:

• naturally available groundwater: sufficient quantities and good quality;
• the preservation of groundwater (from anthropogenic and geogenic pollution) as a precious common resource;
• the priority use must be given to public drinking water by binding legislation;
• a “zero-pollution” protection goal should be established with intervention values and intervention measures;
• the cooperation between the different stakeholders and users such as polluters, water suppliers, states and individuals: precautionary and polluter-pays principles; transparent and available data collection and monitoring.

You can find the entire Groundwater Memorandum following this link: (PDF 1,8 MB)

www.grueneliga.de/images/PDF-NewsletterENG/europeangroundwatermemorandum_2022_en.pdf