Municipal Water Services – How Can They Remain a Successful Model?

In March 2006, the German government cabinet adopted the "Modernisation Report for the German Water Sector". The report does not yet contain a specific modernisation strategy, but formed the basis for discussions at the 7th Congress of Municipal Utilities of the German Association of Municipal Utilities on 29 November 2006. R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic moderated the debate about the question, how the traditional form of urban utility management can remain a successful model for the provision of good conditions for environmental, social and economic development in towns and cities.

The presentations and subsequent discussions addressed the freedom of municipalities in deciding on the organisation of water service provision, the further establishment and strengthening of benchmarking concepts, the consequences of extending Value Added Tax to sewerage providers operating under public law, the further development of legislation concerning the municipal enterprise, The influence of European policy and law, and global change resulting from climate change, economic globalisation, and demographic change.

Speakers and Discussants were:

• Dr. Andreas Schirmer, Technical Director, Municipal Water Works of Leipzig
• Jens Lattmann, Elected Representative for Environment and Business, Association of German Cities
• Prof. Edda Müller, President, vzbv Federal Association of Consumer Protection Centers
• Lutz Altenwerth, Association President, Sewerage Association Pinneberg
• Reinhold Hüls, Director, Veolia Wasser