The European Commission has officially launched a call for evidence to support the development of an EU-wide Action Plan on digitalisation in the water sector. Announced on 27 May, this initiative follows through on commitments outlined in the 2025 Water Resilience Strategy and the Commission Work Programme for 2026, aiming to modernise European water management through data-driven innovation.

Its goal is to help increase water efficiency, protect the water cycle and ensure that clean, affordable water remains available by improving water infrastructure and enhancing overall EU competitiveness.

The plan also supports the large-scale deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT), including smart sensors and metres, to enable more agile water management. Smart metres can reduce water use by up to 25%, with digital systems saving an additional 5–8% and leak detection reducing consumption by a further 7–14%.

The call seeks to gather evidence and best practices on how technologies such as artificial intelligence can improve efficiency and infrastructure resilience, as well as the challenges that must be faced when implementing them, including regulatory bottlenecks which prevent scaling-up solutions across EU countries.

Stakeholders are encouraged to take part in the online consultation, which is open until 24 June. These include public authorities, river basin managers, the water industry, water-intensive economic sectors such as agriculture, energy and data centres, IT and digital solution providers, research and academia.