Waste Water Charges and the Water Framework Directive – What Does the Directive Require?

On 8 December 2005 the German Associaton for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) organised an expert meeting entitled "25 years of practical experience with Waste Water Charges". Presentations and discussions centered on whether to abolish, keep or modify the Waste Water Charge. Ecologic Policy Advisor Peter Kessler spoke on "Waste water charges and the Water Framework Directive – What does the Directive require?". He argued that an abolishment without substition of the Waste Water Charge would violate the principle of cost recovery (environmental costs) of Art. 9 of the Directive.

As expected, there was no consensus on the different issues among participants. The discussion rather reflected the variety of opinions held on the Waste Water Charge, each being marked by different interests. Keywords of the discussion were: deregulation, monitoring solution (in contrast to the existing permit solution), charging options, parameters, and sanction system. One participant noted in a sharp comment: "The monitoring solution is pure fiction, it is an intelligent proposal for the abolishment of the Waste Water Charge".

The presentation of Peter Kessler is available for download  [pdf, 68 KB, German].