The public discussion on consequences of Climate Change as well as an increased number of events on water scarcity, droughts and floods has raised general awareness in society and increased the demand for more reasonable use of natural resources like water.

Water is our most precious natural resource and an essential human need. It is a common heritage which cannot be replaced and has to be protected and preserved for future generations to sustain our societies, our economies and the environment.

Important progress has been made in water protection in Europe over the past decades. It is recognized that the best adaptation to Climate Change is responsible water management in order to avoid shortages in water supply and to reduce the need of priority setting between different water users in times of scarcity. However, Europe’s waters are still in need of increased efforts to get them clean, to bring them back to their ecological health and to manage them sustainably. Many important environmental, social, political, and policy drivers will influence the future of Europe’s waters.

At the corporate level, leading companies and businesses have already realized the need to include sustainable water governance in their business strategies.

The implementation of obligatory legal systems for reasonable water use is a long and bureaucratic process that may be supported by complementary voluntary assessment systems of the private sector which provide additional incentives to implement Water Stewardship. Methods of water accountancy (like water footprinting) represent a powerful tool to monitor water use and to clarify potential water risks in production or supply chain. However, the embedded water volume is not an appropriate parameter to judge the local impact of the water use and still gives weak indications about pollution aspects.

Based on the lessons learned from the implementation of legal requirements (e.g. of the European Water Framework Directive) and considering that water accountancy methods may not provide guidance on how to reduce harmful  impacts, there is an actual necessity for a tool providing water users with concrete response on how to implement Water Stewardship within a local context. In order to achieve a minimized water use towards a sustainable level and with a focus on environmental, social and economic impacts it is necessary that this tool:

• Goes beyond water accountancy and impact assessment.
• Involves the response aspects of water use.
• Creates positive incentives to change behavior and practices.

The European Water Partnership (EWP) was created as a response to these challenges. The EWP is an independent non-profit organization with a clear value base: The Water Vision for Europe. The Vision aspires to mobilize people and stakeholders around common values and to stimulate people to act in partnerships in order to solve Europe’s water problems and to contribute to solutions that will address the global water crisis.

The broad support the Vision received and the subsequent launching of European Water Stewardship (EWS) prepared the way for providing water users with a concrete tool to change behavior towards sustainable water management.