European industrial leaders warn water shortages threaten growth

Schneider Electric released The Water Crunch Report on Oct. 20, 2026. Fifty-two percent of European industrial leaders expect water quality or availability to become a serious barrier to growth by 2031; 14% say it already is. Forty-four percent said operations would suffer within 24 hours of a serious disruption. Water stress raised costs for 44%, strained infrastructure budgets for 38%, and disrupted supply chains for 30%. Gwenaelle Huet called water a competitiveness issue. Sophie Borgne said about half the EU and UK face drought and only 2.4% of treated urban wastewater is reused. Tom Freyberg noted 47% raised water-efficiency investment and 43% took water risk to board level. South East, Southern and South West Water asked Defra to authorize non-essential use bans for businesses. Yorkshire joined England's drought list on Oct. 9. Southern Water sought a drought order to draw extra from the River Test. Mark Owen of the Angling Trust said it makes little sense to ban home car washing while commercial washes continue. Sam Bottomley of South West Water said drought recovery takes much longer than rain. WWF Switzerland launched 2019-2024 pesticide-contamination maps; Eva Goldmann said assembling federal data into the tool was a first.