Our water services of tomorrow – Let’s make change happen

The water services sector has the ambition to play a front-running role in Europe’s journey to building climate-neutral, circular, smart and resilient society. To achieve this, water services will work with local and EU level policy makers to maximise the latest innovative technologies and practices, by digitalising their operations, exploiting their full energy efficiency and renewable energy generation potentials, and recovering nutrients and materials from waste water streams and drinking water treatment.

These are the five success factors we must achieve to set the sector on the path to change. They are accompanied by short check-lists for regulators and policy makers.

1. Enabling regulatory framework

2. Ensuring long-term funding and resources

3. Attracting a competent workforce and obtaining societal recognition

4. Developing innovative solutions and increasing motivation to change

5. Avoiding pollution at the source.

Our society, economy, environment and health depend on each of us having access to reliable, clean and affordable water every day. Your European water services strive every day to do this.

Much EU legislation to better protect people and the planet has been passed or is being processed since the last European Parliament elections - the Drinking Water Directive, the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, and legislation covering agriculture, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. One other cornerstone of water legislation – the Water Framework Directive – will need to define its post 2027 ambitions, and policy makers must decide whether to extend its reach to protect water resources. We support such a move.

We need a robust 360° strategy at European level to ensure that water services are protected across all areas. In our vision for our water’s future, we call on EU to prioritise:

1. Giving water its right place

2. Protecting the quality of our water resources

3. Addressing climate change

4. Enhancing the Circular Economy

5. Financing change while keeping water services affordable

6. Improving security and resilience and guaranteeing the protection of sensitive information.

Read more in our Water Resilience Strategy for Europe; Our vision for our water’s future.

Our world is changing rapidly and so are water services. Innovation is key to guaranteeing the affordability of safe, sustainable and resilient water services for the decades to come. Water service providers are well aware of the challenges and have identified a number of technological and non-technological areas requiring particular innovation efforts with a view to meeting the goals of the European Green Deal. New challenges have also placed a particular focus on the need for innovation across the sector’s supply chain to boost resilience as well as sustainability.

The research needs are compiled in this document and should help policy makers in designing research and innovation programmes in a way that responds to the real needs of drinking water and wastewater operators.

From morning until night and even while we sleep, our water operators are working 24 hours a day, and seven days a week, to deliver sustainable services that keep each of us safe and healthy.

The complex processes that we put in place to meet the challenges of delivering these services are adapted to their specific local circumstances. They depend on factors such as population density, the type and available quantity of water resources, required treatment levels, local topography and many other elements. Additional factors influencing prices, costs and asset values include the scope of the service, salary levels, taxes and the facility running costs.

We believe that our survey is the most comprehensive currently available. It includes national technical, economic and managerial data ranging from population connection rates to drinking water production to waste water treatment levels to prices and governance. The results testify to the diversity of the sector. They also show some of the immediate challenges our sector is facing, particularly regarding investment needs.

We trust you will find the information contained in this report useful.

Water services are essential services. They support the sustainable development of our societies and are fundamental to realising the ambition of the EU Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but little is known about them. This is because the infrastructure is mainly underground, accessible only to a few service engineers and also because it is sometimes situated far from urban areas and protected for obvious security reasons. But also because water services’ organisation differs from country to country due to history, cultural heritage and national or local traditions which result in specific regulatory frameworks.

Our report brings clarity and simplifies the governance of water services in Europe, and our report provides a snapshot of the current situation in the 29 EurEau member countries. It illustrates the diversity of management models, organisational structures, tasks and responsibilities of the players involved at the different levels of governance (EU, national, regional or local).

Our world is changing rapidly and so are water services. Innovation is key to guaranteeing the affordability of safe, sustainable and resilient water services for the decades to come. Water service providers are well aware of the challenges and have identified a number of technological and non-technological areas requiring particular innovation efforts with a view to meeting the goals of the European Green Deal. 

The research needs are laid out in this report and should help policy makers in designing research and innovation programmes in a way that responds to the real needs of drinking water and waste water operators.

EurEau commissioned a study to assess the potential applicability and relevance of extended producer responsibility (EPR) in order to develop clear policy guidance to address emissions of micropollutants and microplastics from products. A key finding of the study confirms that control-at-source measures should be the starting point of mitigation measures.