As part of the South-West European Territorial Cooperation Programme (SUDOE), the Hérault Departmental Council formed a network comprising the Gironde department, five Spanish and Portuguese local authorities and fourteen other partners (public institutions and water management authorities) in order to study possible synergies between regional planning policy and water policy. This affiliation led to the creation of the Water and Territories project (WAT), which seeks to pool knowledge regarding the sustainable management of water resources.

The European Environment Agency (EAA), based in Copenhagen, presented a report on 22 March entitled “Water resources across Europe confronting water scarcity and drought” which analyses the over-abstraction of water in Europe and its consequences on the quality and the quantity of the remaining water and the ecosystems that depend on it.