Around 20 cities will be selected by the European Commission to share their technical expertise and strategic advice on the Commission’s Urban Water Agenda 2030.

The agenda aims to build on the capacities and political leadership of local governments to advance sustainable water management in Europe. The Commission is looking to work with cities in accelerating the implementation of EU water policies and legislation, such as the EU Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive.

A water-wise city vision accelerates action

The IWA Principles for Water-Wise Cities provide an all-encompassing vision for sustainable urban water management that unites people and institutions, traverses boundaries and scales, and enables a city to take action. The 17 Principles underlie resilient planning and design in cities by encouraging collaborative action, so that local governments, urban professionals, and individuals actively engage in addressing and finding solutions for managing all waters of the city.

Read full article by Tom Williams from the International Water Association (IWA).

Rivers and lakes located in European cities and towns are getting cleaner thanks to improvements in waste water treatment and restoration projects which have brought many waterways back to life. New forms of water management contribute to make our cities greener, smarter and more sustainable, but key challenges remain, according to a new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
More info at: http://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/restoring-european-rivers-and-lakes .

Urban, demographic and climate trends are increasingly exposing cities to risks of having too little, too much and too polluted water. Facing these challenges requires robust public policies and sound governance frameworks to co-ordinate across multiple scales, authorities, and policy domains. Building on a survey of 48 cities in OECD countries and emerging economies, the report analyses key factors affecting urban water governance, discusses trends in allocating roles and responsibilities across levels of government, and assesses multi-level governance gaps in urban water management. It provides a framework for mitigating territorial and institutional fragmentation and raising the profile of water in the broader sustainable development agenda, focusing in particular on the contribution of metropolitan governance, rural-urban partnerships and stakeholder engagement.