Drawing on European data and Sweco's engineering and architectural expertise, the report Too much, too little, too polluted shows how climate driven weather extremes, diffuse pollution and ageing infrastructure are converging faster than current planning and pricing models have accounted for. Around 20 percent of Europe's land and 30 percent of its population experience water stress each year, while flooding caused damage amounting to approximately €18 billion in 2024 and affected more than 400,000 people.

At the same time, 32 percent of groundwater bodies are under pressure from diffuse pollution, mainly agriculture, and contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and "forever chemicals" PFAS are now being detected in most European water bodies.

"Europe's water challenge no longer concerns isolated events or individual regions. Sweco's analysis shows that flooding, scarcity and pollution must be managed as one interconnected system, or the risks will continue to grow and threaten Europe's water security, public health, infrastructure reliability and economic stability," says Mattias Salomonsson, Water Expert at Sweco.

A central finding of the report is a growing gap between the real long-term cost of water and what is currently reflected in water tariffs and investment decisions. Much of Europe's water infrastructure was built decades ago for a different climate and lower treatment demands, and in many countries around 20 percent of today's treated water is lost through leakage. Using pricing data combined with technical cost modelling, Sweco estimates that adding advanced treatment to remove micropollutants would increase average water costs around 6 percent*, with the largest impact in countries where prices are currently low, such as Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands.

"The true cost of water extends far beyond the water bill. Failure to consider future flood damage, supply disruptions, stricter regulation and environmental degradation at an early stage means that risks and costs increase over time. However, solutions do exist and across Europe, Sweco is supporting public and private clients in strengthening water systems through long-term planning, risk-based investments and integrated approaches that increase resilience," says Mattias Salomonsson.

Sweco has identified six concrete actions for national authorities, municipalities, utilities, investors and insurers:

• Mandatory water risk assessments
• Long-term municipal water strategies
• Planned renewal of ageing infrastructure
• Resilience-based utility operations
• Integration of water risk into investment and insurance decisions
• Land use planning and nature-based solutions to reduce flood and pollution risks
   

These approaches are already being implemented across Europe, with examples including advanced wastewater treatment in Germany and Belgium, climate adapted urban spaces in Denmark, circular rainwater storage systems in the Netherlands, long-term drought resilience planning on Jersey, and dam safety and flood reassessments in Norway.

--> Read more in the report attached, or at this link.

* The analysis by Sweco is based on a review and synthesis of publicly available data, notably a 2021 survey by the European Federation of National Associations of Water Services (EurEau), which covers the situation in 29 EurEau member countries. Sweco used its experience from micropollutant removal in Germany, applied it to EurEau's cost data and derived a rough estimate of the resulting water price increase in Europe - driven by expanded wastewater treatment for micropollutant removal.
 

Sources

In addition to the above EurEau data, Sweco draws from sources such as these throughout the report:

• European Environment Agency, Europe's State of Water 2024
• Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), European State of the Climate 2024- Flooding
• European Commission, Poorly managed water
   

About Urban Insight by Sweco
Urban Insight is a series of insight reports written by Sweco experts on various aspects of urban development from a citizen perspective. The full report and previous reports are available here.