The book "Water and Liberalisation. European water scenarios" presents the results of the EUROMARKET project that analysed the organisation of the water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector in Europe. At the heart of the project was the development of possible scenarios for the future of the European WSS sector. Ecologic contributed one chapter to the book and analysed the environmental implications of the different scenarios.

Nadine Herbke, Britta Pielen, Jessica Ward and R. Andreas Kraemer analysed the six scenarios from an environmental perspective and identified three particularly determinant factors with potentially great environmental impacts, namely the length of the contract, the regulative framework in which companies operate and the level of monitoring they are subject to.

Although no scenario could be said to present clear advantages from an environmental point of view, it appeared that the Delegation Contract scenario failed to provide in itself adequate incentives for the implementation of long-term oriented water protection and infrastructure maintenance measures, as opposed to the Direct Public Management and Community Management scenarios. However, no single system could possibly take account of the diversity of geographic and political contexts in which water is provided across Europe. The responsible authority at local level must thus keep the ability to decide how to best guarantee sustainable water provision.