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Take part in the Water Development and Management Plan (SDAGE) consultation for your area

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This month, as it launches its campaign on water quality and user health, Surfrider Europe is inviting its community to take part in the public consultation on the review of the twelve water development and management plans (SDAGE) in France and its overseas territories. These water management plans define the main strategic directions for achieving “good water status” and raise real environmental, societal and economic issues for users in the areas concerned. Explanations.

Take part in the next public consultation to revise the SDAGEs

The European Water Framework Directive, which was adopted in 2000, has guided water management policy within the EU for more than 20 years. This directive, which prioritizes environmental protection and a sustainable use of aquatic resources that does not degrade quality, defines results and objectives that each Member State should attain in order to gain “good water status”.  These include the preservation of resources and environments, satisfactory condition of water bodies, reduction of pollution linked to chemical substances, compliance with specific standards in protected areas, etc.

Video exemple on the Adour-Garonne territory

In France, these community requirements are enacted in the Water Development and Management Plans (SDAGE), one for each of the 12 territorial basins. These Plans, which are revised every six years and balance economic development with respect for the environment, are drawn up in consultation with the various water stakeholders and the public. 12 consultations are now open and will remain so until September 2021, so that the public can have its say on the orientations the various SDAGEs should take over the period 2022-2027. Here is an opportunity to make your voice heard on this matter! Completing the online questionnaires takes less than five minutes!

Surfrider Europe, a stakeholder in the management of the Adour-Garonne and Rhône-Mediterranean basins

The responses to these consultations will be taken into account by the water policy governing bodies in each area. The final decision on the orientations adopted in the development programs lies with each basin committee. While these are largely made up of elected officials and state representatives, 40% of committee members represent water users in each area. Hence, once the public has been consulted, representatives from industry and agriculture along with associations defending fishermen, consumers and environmental protection will actively participate on an equal basis in the decision-making process.

As an environmental organisation and nautical users’ representative, Surfrider Foundation Europe has been a member of the Rhône-Mediterranean and Adour-Garonne basin committees for more than ten years now, and actively contributes to the development of their respective SDAGEs.  Its expertise in water quality and user health has helped the Association to develop overall expertise on the questions relating to use of aquatic resources within these two basins. It intends to vote, notably, in favor of : increasing preservation of resources and biodiversity; ensuring users share the basin in a balanced manner; optimizing water resources; stopping the discharge of chemical substances into the environment; and seriously taking nautical users’ health into account. A large number of the Association’s demands will also be on the table during the revision of the European Directive on Bathing Water Management and Monitoring.

Water quality and users’ health – an important issue in 2021

Surfrider Europe’s expertise will once more be put to good use during the summer, this time for a European consultation. Surfrider will thus be calling on its Ocean community again so that, together, we can build today the Bathing and Recreational Waters policy of tomorrow! Using its #HealthyWater Manifesto as a basis, the Association is preparing an information guide to encourage citizens to respond to this consultation. Revision of the European Directives is a very long process, sometimes taking more than 20 years. It is therefore important to act and make your voice heard, because numbers count! By participating massively we will be able to influence European orientations with the aim of attaining excellent water quality, in order to practice nautical activities in a healthy environment!