Water Problems in Some EU Pre-Accession Countries

1. Water Problems in Some EU Pre-Accession Countries Dr. Galia Bardarska Bulgarian Academy of Sciences bardarska@dir.bg

2. Central and Eastern European (CEE) Region • 105 million population • 1.08 million km2 land • Goal of all to rejoin Europe • Estonia • Latvia • Lithuania • Poland • Czech Republic • Slovakia • Hungary • Slovenia • Romania • Bulgaria

3. Main water problemsin CEE region • low renewable water resources (to 1000 m3/capita in Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary) and high water leakages (Bulgaria) • persistent water shortages cause resource allocation problems, conflicts and competition between different water uses • quality problems of drinking water, obsolete water infrastructure, and non-effective water companies • low level of wastewater management

4. Mean annual renewable water resources and GDP

5. Mean annual water use

6. The reduction of water demand is as a consequence of: • the fall in economic activity; • the highest control of the water quantity uses (water meters installations); • the real water pricing.

7. Approximate network losses Note: na - data does not exist; (1) – new investigation

9. Water losses investigations

10. Low level of wastewater management Sewerage from 50% (Romania, Hungary, Slovakia) to close to 90% in Czech Republic Biological treatment from 35% (Romania) to 80% (Czech Republic) of the collected sewage Considerable impact on: • pollution of surface, groundwater and waters of deep aquifers; • rising of the groundwater level under settlements.

11. Measures on Water Conservation • First,changes in water quantity control will promote more efficient use of water Comparison of the costs of installation of water meters to the costs of water transfers indicates that water meters are more cost-effective (Cracow town, Poland).

12. Second, increase of significance of the price mechanisms

13. The highest percentage of income spent on water and sewerage services is observed in Romania – 4.5% Share of expenditures for water and sewage treatment in households budgets

14. Third, privatization and reduced state interference - attempts to privatise the sector, allowing involvement of foreign capital;- well-prepared water laws and innovative financing approaches for financing specific water problems;- immediate analysis into scale of financial demands, and the resource gap;- clear institutional separation of enterprise ownership from regulatory authorities;- replacing old equipment by less water-intensive and cleaner production technologies.

15. Investment needs for EU pre-accession countries, rounded values in billion EURO

16. Fourth, international cooperation - sharing bad and good experiences between stakeholders - improve dialogue among politicians, water consumers, water specialists and other stakeholders - communication at every level - regional, national, community and household For example, ToolBox for Case Studies of Global Water Partnershipwww.gwpforum.org

17. Conclusions The main drivers for action of the 10 pre-accession countries • Implementation of river basin management • Changing the ownership of water and sewerage infrastructure from the state ownership into mixed state-municipal or municipal • Improving financial flows • Implementation of uniform rules of costs calculation borne by the operators. Better pricing policies in a very practical way by improving the transparency and the information available for consumers, users and taxpayers. Increase of the tariffs for water and sewerage exceeding inflation in order to decrease cross-subsidies • Generating knowledge for integrated water resources management and increasing public awareness for water conservation

18. “Every human being, now and in the future, should have enough clean water, appropriate sanitation and enough food and energy at reasonable cost. Providing adequate water to meet these basic needs must be done in a manner that works in harmony with nature.”World Water Commission, 2000 Thanks Clean water for children