Europe's water crisis: what can be done about drought and scarcity?

Satellite imagery is showing an alarming band of extreme dryness stretching from Spain north to Denmark and Sweden this summer, while the Rhine and Danube rivers are running at historic low levels. The images underline the severity of a drought affecting large parts of the continent, raising questions about long-term water security for hundreds of millions of people.

Household water use accounts for less than 20 percent of Europe's total consumption. Agriculture and the cooling systems of power plants together account for roughly two-thirds. Countries such as Greece, Spain and Turkey use approximately 2,000 litres per person per day when agricultural irrigation is factored in — dwarfing domestic consumption.

Gisela Elsner, a water-policy expert at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told DW that measures like banning private swimming pools, while visible and politically popular, are largely symbolic. Real solutions require a fundamental reform of agricultural water use: better irrigation technology, drought-resistant crops, and changes to subsidy structures that currently encourage water-intensive farming.

Scientists warn that the El Niño climate pattern, which typically intensifies heat and drought in Europe, is expected to peak again in 2027, making the coming years potentially the driest on record. Without structural reform, the current crisis may be a preview of conditions that become the norm across much of the continent.