Cllr Caroline Dwane warns that flooding in County Laois shows climate change is already affecting communities and calls for water to become an EU strategic priority.

The recent floods across South-West Europe, have served as a stark reminder of the need to strengthen EU risk resilience, preparedness, response and prevention across all levels. This means adopting a "resilience by design" approach, which will enable disaster resilience and vulnerability assessments to be implemented directly into urban planning and decisions on investments and infrastructure.

The opinion led by CoR president Kata Tüttő and First Vice-President Juanma Moreno, pointed out the direct correlation that exists between natural availability of water, and the levels of regional development. With this, the measures of water resilience must be fair and affordable. Furthermore, local and regional authorities demand for water management to be systemically integrated across all the EU policy areas and apply a "Water Test" to legislation.

In addition, CoR members highlighted that due to the high levels of water consumption within the agricultural sector, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) must provide targeted support to help streamline and modernise the sector.

Group member Cllr Caroline Dwane recalled that climate change is already impacting local communities, as she emphasised the terrible flooding experienced in County Laois, Ireland, last November. Additionally, she called for water to become a strategic priority for the European Union, with investment in resilient infrastructure, stronger river basin management and a prominent role for Local Regional Authorities (LRA's), in shaping water policy. ​

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