In recent years, the water shortage has also reached Europe. Extended heat spells have lowered the water surface in Central European rivers, lakes and reservoirs.
In the Netherlands, some channels dried up almost completely during the summer of 2022, and certain stretches of the Rhine and the Danube, which are major European rivers, nearly ran dry.
The water shortage has had a significant impact on agriculture. For example, because of last summer’s draught, the tomato crop in Southern Europe was at an all-time low, which also reflected on tomato prices up north in Finland.
“The situation is dire. French President Emmanuel Macron has already talked about preventing possible water wars, which can be considered extremely hard rhetoric,” says the dean of the LUT School of Engineering Sciences, Mari Kallioinen-Mänttäri.
Water resources and their management involve complex issues that require expertise in engineering and taking the societal dimension into account.
Read what LUT University is doing to solve the water crisis: https://www.lut.fi/en/articles/water-crisis-forces-communities-tackle-complex-issues
