Water Resources Management Policies and Actions
Implementation of EU Water Framework Directive
After the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) (WFD) introduced by the European
Council in 2000, United Kingdom, being one of the members of the Council, has set out
policies to follow the Directive. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Defra), the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Department of
the Environment Northern Ireland have policy responsibility for the implementation of
the WFD in the UK. Much of the implementation work will be undertaken by the
Competent Authorities, which are the Environment Agency in England and Wales; the
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) in Scotland; and the Environment and
Heritage Service in Northern Ireland.165
WFD applies to all water in the natural environment, i.e. all rivers, lochs, estuaries and
coastal waters as well as underground water.166
The basic objectives set out in Article 4(1) of the WFD can be summarised as follows:
• prevent deterioration of the status of groundwater bodies;
• protect, enhance and restore all bodies of groundwater with the aim of achieving
good groundwater status by 2015;
• prevent or limit the input of pollutants to groundwater and reverse any significant
and sustained upward trend in the concentration of pollutants in groundwater;
• comply with Europe-wide measures for dangerous substances; and
• achieve compliance with any relevant standards and objectives for protected areas.
The ways in which England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to implement the
Directive are summarised below.
(i) England and Wales
Current Government policy is set out in the strategy document “Directing the Flow –
priorities for future water policy” in 2002. A new strategy is now under development
and shall be published later in 2007, which plans to provide an opportunity to ensure
that those commitments are realised in a way that will also aid the achievement of
Defra’s high level goals: mitigation and adapting to climate change, and protecting and
enhancing the natural asset base. The overarching aim of the new water strategy is to
improve standards of service and quality, through sustainable water management,
whilst achieving a balance between environmental impacts, water quality of surface and
ground waters, supply and demand, and social and economic effects. The
intermediate outcomes are167: