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.
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March 2021: New scientific publication
We are delighted to announce another new publication by members of the FAIRWAY team
S. Wuijts, J. Claessens, L. Farrow, D.G. Doody, S. Klages, C. Christophoridis, R. Cvejić, M. Glavan, I. Nesheim, F. Platjouw, I. Wright, J. Rowbottom, M. Graversgaard, C. van den Brink, I. Leitão, A. Ferreira, S. Boekhold 2021. Protection of drinking water resources from agricultural pressures: Effectiveness of EU regulations in the context of local realities, Journal of Environmental Management, 287:112270
»https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479721003327
»Summary infographic: Effectiveness of EU legislation in the context of local realities
March 2021: Is it a good day to spray? Webinar about new app
As part of the FAIRWAY research programme SprayDay, a mobile phone app, has been developed to help infrequent professional pesticide users follow best practice.
We are offering six webinar sessions in late March 2021 to demonstrate the prototype and seek feedback from farmers and other professionals whose work relates to pesticide use or impact on water quality.
The webinars are free, open to anyone who is interested, and will be in English.
»Dates, times and more information
Read more: March 2021: Is it a good day to spray? Webinar about new app
November 2020: New CAP: an opportunity for water policies?
EUROPE-INBO 2020 CAP Workshop, 9 November 2020, New CAP: an opportunity for water policies?
The conference was mainly oriented towards policies aspects and two research programs were presented. From FAIRWAY WP3, we showed that in some hydrological contexts, a long time lag between nitrogen input and nitrate concentration in deep groundwater (>10 y) can exist. Policies, such as Water Framework Direct, CAP and Nitrates Directive, have to deal with this long response time and therefore indicators and database to anticipate on the water quality response time are needed to evaluate effectiveness of policies.
We focused on the lag time mainly to insist on the need on consistent politics to provide long term effort. This is particularly important for the current discussion about the new CAP. Continuity in existing programs with measures and monitoring is important and stakeholders should be aware that effects of new action programs results may not be seen during the period of one CAP.
