Safe drinking water is vital for human health. Diffuse pollution of nitrogen and pesticides from agriculture is the main obstacle to meet drinking water quality targets.
The objective of FAIRWAY is
- to review approaches for protection of drinking water resources against pollution by pesticides and nitrate, and
- to identify and further develop innovative measures and governance approaches for a more effective drinking water protection.
May 2019: Joint FAIRWAY - WaterProtect national stakeholder group meeting in Denmark
In May a successful 2nd Annual Joint FAIRWAY - WaterProtect National Stakeholder Group Meeting was held in Denmark.
Participants from farmers’ organisations, drinking water associations (DANVA and Aalborg Water), Danish Agriculture & Food Council, Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark, the Danish Society for Nature Conservation, the municipalities and water company in the case study areas together with the partners of FAIRWAY and WaterProtect (Aarhus University, University of Copenhagen, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland and SEGES) discussed:
- participating monitoring;
- lessons learned from past groundwater protection projects;
- consultants' perspectives on future groundwater protection;
- consumers' knowledge about and attitude to water supply and water quality;
- uncertainties in delineation of drinking water abstraction zones.
Thanks to the Aalborg municipality and Aalborg Water for hosting the joint annual meeting.
Rikke Krogshave Laursen
March 2019: Decision support tools workshop
Over the last 6 months, nine FAIRWAY case study sites have been testing a number of decision support tools (DSTs) that are used in European countries to help farmers/policy makers/water companies promote good practices for reducing nitrate and pesticide pollution of surface water and groundwater.
The results were presented on 12 March 2019 at a successful workshop at Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark.
Some of our main findings are:
- Many similar DSTs exist for similar problems. Themes and ideas behind national DSTs can be exchanged between regions and countries.
- A DST cannot generally be exchanged between countries without adjustments because of local differences in the climate, farming systems and implementation of legislation etc.
- One DST for all European countries will not work.
The FAIRWAY network increases the collaboration, exchange of ideas and inspire to improvements and further development of DSTs. Please feel free to contact us if you need any further information (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Rikke Krogshave Laursen
December 2018: FAIRWAY & WATER PROTECT Joint Conference
EU policies in addressing drinking water managment challenges
7 December 2018, Brussels
Venue: Permanent Representation of Slovenia in Brussels Brussels, Rue de Commerce 44 Brussels Belgium
