European water resources

Overall, there is no water shortage problem in Europe. However, the amount of water available for sustained consumption is very unevenly distributed across the continent. There are extreme variations that range from less than 100 cubic metres per capita per year in Malta to more than 630,000 cubic meters per capita per year in Iceland.

Many European countries are heavily dependent on external contributions of water through transboundary rivers to meet their demands. Countries located downstream of large rivers (Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Luxembourg and The Netherlands) receive more than 75 percent of their flows from other countries, which could result in a dispute over transboundary water pollution or the disposal of water resources.

Water abstraction by source in selected European countries