water resources [ water availability | Water balance(ECLAS) ]

management of water resources | water management | water resources management

water resource conserving | water resource managing | conserve water resource | manage water resources

scarcity of water | water scarcity

Water is a precious resource, yet its availability may be temporarily low due to droughts, or due to a sustained period of time in which demand for water exceeds exploitable water resources (water scarcity).

River basins are considered as the management unit for water resources and each has a "Plan de Cuenca" (Basin Plan), whose main objectives are to achieve a highly satisfactory level of supply in quantity and quality, best possible use of the resources available through savings and more efficient management, the diversification of the resources in its origin and reduced vulnerability of water supply systems.

whereas making farming more sustainable is becoming an ever more important objective for operators, given the need to control costs in order to safeguard incomes, on the one hand, and to respond to the depletion and degradation of natural resources (soil, water, air and biodiversity) on the other; whereas agriculture accounts for 70 % of the world’s fresh water use, and whereas water availability is already a major limitation on agricultural production in some regions of the EU and globally; whereas the use of drinking water in agriculture can be significantly reduced by the effective use of modern irrigation techniques and by growing ...[+++]crops suited to the local climate.

With ever-growing demand for different and often conflicting uses (e.g. agriculture, industry, recreational activities, public services, ecosystems and landscape maintenance, environmental restoration and enhancement), increased resource vulnerability exacerbated by climate and global change, urbanisation, pollution and over-exploitation of freshwater resources, maintaining and improving water quality and availability, and mitigating the impact of human activities on fresh water ecosystems is becoming a critical challenge for the user ...[+++]s of water in various sectors as well as for aquatic ecosystems.