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AquaFed - The International Federation of Private Water Operators

AquaFed

AquaFed’s three missions are: - To provide a means for communication and dialogue between private water & wastewater service providers and international institutions and stakeholders. This includes all the main UN agencies that deal with water as well as at the European level all the relevant EU agencies and administrations. - To contribute, in a constructive manner, and by co-operating with other stakeholders, to solving the world’s water problems by sharing the expertise of private operators and working with the international community, including the UN system and the EU bodies, and intergovernmental initiatives. As such we are an accredited ‘Friend of UN-Water’ and share completely UN-Water's second goal, which is “to contribute substantially to the achievements of global water and sanitation related targets and goals” with an “emphasis on MDGs and JPOI”. In addition, AquaFed has been a member of the EUWI steering group. - To ensure that the various ways of involving the (...)

Lobbying Activity

Response to Revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive

2 Sept 2020

AquaFed welcomes the release by the Commission of its Inception Impact Assessment on the Revision of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD), as part of efforts towards a greener Europe. AquaFed believes this Directive has triggered a deep, sustained, costly but ultimately, successful action throughout the EU, to the benefit of the European citizens who live in a safer, healthier, water environment. The UWWTD created common targets, metrics and deadlines for wastewater management, around which Member States developed the suitable governance according to their national settings. The EU should modernise the UWWTD and first adapt it to the requirements and targets set by the United Nations, more specifically the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, as adopted by the United Nations in 2010, and the SDG 6.2 and 6.3 for access to sanitation for all, and wastewater management, by 2030. The EU citizenry has also voiced concerns about a whole range of types of pollution, the disastrous impacts of climate change on water courses, threatening at the same time their water ecosystems, their economic life, and their well-being, all them being at the core of the Green Deal ambitions. Moreover, the Covid-19 crisis has revealed that the continuity of public water and wastewater services is an essential sanitary means to combat the disease. To recover, in vulnerable populations and beyond, this essential dimension must be fully accounted for in the revision. AquaFed expects the Commission to take the same strategic approach that was successfully taken by the previous generation: set targets, metrics, and deadlines to address the above concerns. The social and sanitary angle, with the realization of the Human Rights to access decent toilets, must be an integral part of the revision. AquaFed believes that the outcome of the trialogue on the Drinking Water Directive article 13 is a political signal, strong enough to make the equivalent proposal in the UWWTD, with a view to get Member States, as duty bearers, to plan action. AquaFed has been an early promoter of this Human Right, at both global and European level, and we witness the difficulties to develop access to toilets, especially to vulnerable populations, in absence of a supportive legislative environment: now it’s time. The holistic perspective taken in the Commission’s Inception Impact Assessment to address the remaining pollution sources - urban runoffs, chemicals of emerging concern, connected industries, etc, in a systemic way, is relevant. We equally endorse the directions to reduce pollution at source and downstream, organising a level playing field for discharges into the environment, for climate-neutrality, whilst helping the circular economy to take off. AquaFed acknowledges the attention paid to improving governance, through “better planning of the investments needed, combined with solid financing strategies taking account affordability and the need to alleviate poverty”. To best achieve this, we believe that pan-European indicators, targets and reporting will increase the relevance of the necessary public debates: it will avoid distortions, create a culture of transparency yielding citizen trust, encourage relevant local debates, and facilitate accountability of actors at all levels of governance, and ultimately, Member States and the EU.
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Meeting with Astrid Dentler (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica), Deša Srsen (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica), Ivo Belet (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica) and Water Europe

22 Jul 2020 · EU Water Alliance

Response to Revision of the Drinking Water Directive (RECAST 2017)

27 Mar 2018

Summary The European Commission adopted a legislative proposal for a new Drinking Water Directive (DWD) on 1 February 2018. AquaFed welcomes the revision of the DWD as an opportunity to further strengthen access to wholesome and clean drinking water in the European Union and supports the proposed measures in principle. Regarding the transparency measures, we believe the Directive should recommend that Member States develop their national indicators on the list of matters decided in Annex IV. We also wholeheartedly support the obligation to improve access to water but we need further clarity from the Commission on how this will be implemented. Consistent approaches and measures across the EU are very important. In the proposal, the current provisions regarding materials and products in contact with drinking water are replaced with a ‘Domestic Distribution Risk assessment’. Further clarity is needed on the EU legislative bodies’ expectations on what these changes would mean in practise. Finally, whilst we believe the new water quality standards are necessary to take account of the WHO recommendations, there could be further monitoring requirements which are likely to increase costs and stretch operators’ resources significantly. We focus on two areas of the revision: access to water and information. Access to water AquaFed welcomes the Commission’s initiative to guarantee the fundamental right of access to drinking water and to improve its quality. The current proposals give member states the responsibility to identify people without access to an individual connection, to install indoor and outdoor facilities in areas without access, and to promote tap water. We support the flexibility given to member states on how to meet these responsibilities. However, it is essential that the EU legislative bodies make more specific provisions on the outcomes and measures it intends for access to water. Equally, some member states are not sufficiently resourced to extend their main centralised water supply, and will need specific support measures from the EU. Information Regarding information, the Commission’s proposals are a positive step forward for the promotion of transparency on the data of water services in the EU. Globally, private operators have encouraged the publishing, to date, of more than 100,000 performance indicators. The transparency and the accountability of water services would be enhanced significantly if all public water systems, all public water authorities and all their operators, whatever their status, are required to disclose regularly through the internet and other appropriate means, comparable data on key economic, human rights and other performance indicators. The obligation to make data available must fall to the public authorities organising the water services. Thus, the notion of "public organising authority" should be substituted for that of "water supplier" for this provision. This being provided, water-users and citizens can scrutinise their water suppliers’ performance and academics can process the data to identify promising solutions for progress.
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