Role of a judge when dealing with files on water
Introduction
A diversion of waters such as that contemplated in those cases, in as much as they may have an adverse impact on the status of the body of water may be allowed, provided those modifications or alterations were made for reasons “of overriding public interest” or if the benefits to the environment and to society of achieving the Directive’s objectives “are outweighed by the benefits of the new modifications or alteration to human health, to the maintenance of human safety or to sustainable development”, e.g. if the river basin receiving the waters is incapable of meeting needs in terms of drinking water, electricity production or irrigation from its own water resources. Even the maintenance of biodiversity was questioned, and it may in certain cases require the maintenance, or indeed the encouragement, of human activities where the conversion of a natural fluvial ecosystem into a largely man-made fluvial ecosystem is being considered. On an entirely different level, the national law which approved the project did so on the basis of an environmental impact assessment which had served as the basis of a prior administrative decision even though that administrative decision was ultimately cancelled, which also raised some serious issues.