Definition: the water exploitation index plus (WEI+) is a measure of total freshwater use (cooling water is not counted) as a percentage of the renewable fresh water resources (groundwater and surface water) at a given time and place. The indicator is presented as annual average values. Annual calculations at national level, however, cannot reflect uneven spatial and seasonal distribution of resources and may therefore mask water scarcity that occurs on a seasonal or local basis. The data come from Eurostat.

Goal: the water exploitation index plus (WEI+) must remain below 20%.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 6.4: “By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity.

The Federal Long-Term Strategic Vision for Sustainable Development contains objective 34: “Renewable resources, in particular freshwater, will be exploited without compromising the ability of future generations to exploit them” (Belgian Official Gazette, 08/10/2013).

The European Environment Agency, which calculates the WEI+ indicator, considers values above 20% as an indication of water scarcity, while values equal or bigger than 40% indicate situations of severe water scarcity where the use of freshwater resources is clearly unsustainable (EAA, 2019).

The Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe furthermore mentions as a milestone that "Water abstraction should stay below 20% of available renewable water resources" (European Commission, 2011).

On this basis, the water exploitation index plus should remain below 20%.

International comparison: the water exploitation index plus remains relatively stable at EU level with a slight downward trend but is at a lower level than Belgium (3.6% in the EU27 and 5.8% in Belgium in 2019). When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with average performance and lays behind the European average in 2019. In that year, Austria ranked first with 0.1% and Cyprus last with 113%.

UN indicator: the selected indicator corresponds to indicator 6.4.2 - Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources.

Sources

• General

  • SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.

  • Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.

  • UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

  • UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

• Specific

  • Belgian Official Gazette: http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi/welcome.pl; research on http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/doc/rech_f.htm (consulted on 24/09/2020).

  • EEA (2019), Use of freshwater resources in Europe, https://www.eea.europa.eu (consulted on 27/09/2021).

  • European Commission (2011), Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European economic and social Committee and the Committee of the regions. Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe, COM/2011/0571 final, https://eur-lex.europa.eu (consulted on 27/09/2021).

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