Urban water management in Germany

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In comparison to other industrialized countries, urban water management in Germany is characterized by the following features:

  • low water consumption per capita: 121 liters / capita / day (2010) compared to 165 in France and more than 260 in the USA
  • high level of tertiary wastewater treatment: 94% of urban wastewater is treated according to the strictest EU standards, including nutrient elimination, compared to France (36 percent) and England / Wales (39 percent) and
  • very low line losses of only 7% compared to 19% in England and Wales, 26% in France and 29% in Italy .
  • high water prices: the cost per cubic meter are in Germany, together with those in Denmark , the highest compared among the 16 industrialized countries. However, due to the lower water consumption in Germany, the average water bill is no higher than in other countries.

The municipalities are responsible for the public drinking water supply and wastewater disposal under the supervision of the federal states . Associations play an important role. As in other member states of the EU , guidelines are largely determined by the EU. In recent decades, there is a trend away from directing companies towards private-sector municipal companies from.

Access to drinking water supply and sanitation

More than 99% of the population in Germany are connected to a drinking water network. The remaining part is self-sufficient through wells . 93% of the population are connected to the public sewage disposal system .

Domestic water consumption

Around 80% of public drinking water consumption is for domestic consumption and small businesses. The remaining share is accounted for by industrial companies that are supplied by the public grid (14%) and other users (6%).

The water consumption in Germany is the second lowest among 14 European countries. It is only a fraction of the water used in North America. Despite projections of increasing water consumption, consumption actually fell from 145 liters per capita and day in 1990 to 121 liters per capita and day in 2010. During the same period, water supply fell by 26%. This corresponds to a reduction of 1.75 billion m 3 . The lower water consumption can have negative effects. It may be necessary to feed drinking water into the sewer system from time to time in order to prevent wastewater from stagnating. Slowly flowing drinking water in the pipes can increase the likelihood of health-endangering recontamination in the pipe network. Current research results show that in networks that meet the requirements of the Drinking Water Ordinance and DIN 2000, no increase in the number of colonies in drinking water due to stagnation is to be expected. Less extraction of groundwater can also lead to damage to the foundations of buildings due to an excessively high groundwater level.

Water resources and public drinking water supply

In general, water is not scarce in Germany, apart from the occasional local drought. Public drinking water supply companies take only 2.7 percent of the renewable water resources in Germany, or 5.1 billion cubic meters out of 188 billion cubic meters that are available annually on a long-term average. The total annual water withdrawal of all water users is 32.3 billion cubic meters (around 17 percent). About 83 percent of the available water is not used.

The public drinking water supply gets its water from the following sources:

  • 65% groundwater
  • 9% sources
  • 5% through bank filtrate
  • 21% from surface water

Service quality

The service quality of the drinking water supply in Germany is generally good. The supply is in most cases continuous, under adequate pressure and the drinking water distributed is of high quality. The provisions of the EU Drinking Water Directive are complied with. All wastewater collected is treated. 94% of urban wastewater is treated according to the strictest EU standards, including nutrient elimination. This proportion is far higher than in France (36 percent) or England and Wales (39 percent).

Responsibility for drinking water supply and waste water disposal

Direct jurisdiction

The public drinking water supply and wastewater disposal in Germany are the responsibility of the municipalities . For their part, the municipalities can delegate the fulfillment of the tasks resulting from this responsibility to municipal companies , public-private partnerships , special-purpose associations or private companies . There are more than 6,000 public drinking water suppliers and around 6,000 sewage disposal companies in Germany. Most of them are run by smaller municipalities. In contrast to the electricity and gas market, which is largely managed by private companies, more than 90% of the water supply in Germany is in municipal hands.

Drinking water supply

Around 15% of the 1,266 larger drinking water suppliers are self-owned ; 16% purpose associations ; 63% proprietary businesses that are either public, mixed, or private owned. 6% of the drinking water suppliers are water and soil associations . Only 3.5% of drinking water suppliers are privately owned (no information is available on the proportion of companies in mixed ownership, an increasingly common form of ownership). Many drinking water suppliers are companies that also offer electricity, gas and / or district heating and generate most of their turnover in these areas.

Sanitation

While in some cases the same company is responsible for drinking water supply , sanitation and rainwater management, in most cases water and wastewater in the same municipality are managed by different suppliers. In contrast to the supply of drinking water, wastewater disposal in Germany is a sovereign core task of the municipalities. This implies that sewage disposal is exempt from VAT as well as from trade tax and corporation tax . It also means that only public corporations can be responsible for wastewater disposal and rainwater management. Most of the municipalities therefore operate wastewater disposal and rainwater management directly in the form of government operations . Less than 10% of the wastewater disposal companies are in-house companies with independent legal personality. However, the municipalities or their own municipal companies can conclude operating agreements with private companies. Around 10% of the 900 largest wastewater disposal companies have concluded operator contracts for the operation of the sewer system. 12% have concluded operator contracts for the operation of sewage treatment plants.

Utility companies in Germany (selection)

Lake Constance, seen here in Lindau, not only supplies the localities around it, but also 320 cities and municipalities in Baden-Württemberg, some of which are far away, with drinking water either directly or indirectly
  • The Berlin Water Works is a nationwide own company of Berlin. They supply 3.5 million people with water and dispose of the wastewater of 3.9 million people.
  • The Bodensee water supply is a special purpose association founded in 1954 with headquarters in Stuttgart to cover the water requirements in many communities in the arid Swabian Alb and in the greater Stuttgart area. Today, as one of the largest German long-distance water supplies, it supplies around four million people in around 320 cities and towns in large parts of Baden-Württemberg with drinking water from Lake Constance . The supply area extends from the Lake Constance area in the south to Bad Mergentheim and Tauberbischofsheim in the north.
  • Swb AG, the successor to Stadtwerke Bremen , supplies the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven with drinking water through its subsidiaries, while the wastewater disposal is provided by hanseWasser Bremen GmbH .
  • The DREWAG , Stadtwerke Dresden GmbH, provides electricity, natural gas, water and district heating. The shareholders are 90% the City of Dresden and 10% Thüga AG .
  • One of the largest purely private water companies in Germany is Gelsenwasser AG , which supplies around 3.2 million people in North Rhine-Westphalia with water and gas and disposes of their wastewater. This takes place within the framework of concession agreements with 39 municipalities.
  • Hamburg Wasser , founded in 2006, supplies more than 2 million people with water and disposes of their wastewater. It includes the Hamburg waterworks and Hamburg city drainage.
  • The state water supply is a municipal association in Baden-Württemberg . The company, based in Stuttgart , was founded in 1912 and is one of the largest long-distance water supply companies in Germany. It supplies around 3 million residents in around 250 communities in northeast Baden-Württemberg with water from the Danube, among other things.
  • A large public company that offers several different infrastructure services is Mainova AG in Frankfurt am Main , which provides water, electricity, gas and district heating.
  • The RheinEnergie AG supplies Cologne and municipalities in the Cologne area with electricity and water. It is 80% owned by the city's GEW Köln AG and 20% owned by the RWE Group.
  • The Stadtwerke München are among the largest energy supply company in Germany and provide water, electricity, gas and district heating to. The sole shareholder is the state capital Munich .
  • Water associations in North Rhine-Westphalia, including the Ruhr Association and the Wupper Association, operate sewage treatment plants, dams and measuring systems for water quality and water levels. They are corporations under public law.

Responsibility for setting political framework conditions and regulation

The EU , the Bundestag and the state parliaments are jointly responsible for setting political framework conditions and for regulating drinking water supply and wastewater disposal in Germany . The EU determines the framework legislation for water quality and water management .

The organization of the public drinking water supply and wastewater disposal remains the responsibility of the member states. In particular, the European legislator does not stipulate whether wastewater disposal must be carried out under public law or under private law. The federal states play a key role in deciding whether the municipalities' obligation to dispose of wastewater can be transferred to legal entities under private law. Among other things, they set the legal framework for the approval of water and wastewater prices. Municipalities have an indirect influence on policy making through their associations (the German Association of Cities and the German Association of Cities and Municipalities ).

Unlike in Anglo-Saxon countries, there are no autonomous regulatory authorities for water and wastewater in Germany. The Federal Network Agency is responsible for regulating the areas of telecommunications, post, electricity, gas and rail transport, but not for drinking water supply and wastewater disposal, the regulation of which is the responsibility of the federal states.

The water prices charged by companies are regulated by the state authorities, usually by the state ministries of economics, which act as state cartel authorities. This can be done after the application has been checked by an independent auditor. The water and wastewater charges levied directly by municipal companies or municipalities, on the other hand, are not directly subject to state supervision, but are determined by the municipalities, which in turn are ultimately regulated by the state interior ministries. While antitrust law enables the economic ministries to push for lower water prices, the municipal supervision does not provide the interior ministries of the federal states with an instrument to intervene in local self-government to lower water and sewage charges. In Hesse, of 399 water suppliers, only 47 are companies that collect prices, while 352 are own companies that collect fees. However, the large cities of Hesse are all supplied by their own companies.

In city states such as Berlin , Hamburg and Bremen , the Senator for Economic Affairs, both in his role as chairman of the supervisory board of the utility company, applies for a fee increase and reviews and approves it in his role as Senator for Economic Affairs, which obviously means a conflict of interest. In the case of some private companies (such as Gelsenwasser), disputes about the increase in fees are decided by a jointly appointed arbitrator on the basis of reports drawn up by auditors.

The drinking water quality is monitored by the utilities themselves and by the health authorities of the municipalities and districts.

Associations

Business and professional associations also play an important role in association self-administration. There are currently six associations in the field of drinking water supply and wastewater disposal. Among them are two business associations, the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW) and the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU); two technical and scientific associations, the German Association for Water Management, Sewage and Waste (DWA) and the German Association for Gas and Water (DVGW); and two associations specialized in sub-areas, the ATT for dams and the DBVW for the water and soil associations. The two technical-scientific associations in particular play an important role in the development of technical standards and in educational work and - more recently - in benchmarking . The skilled worker and master craftsman training, as well as the continuous advanced and advanced training are tasks of the DWA and the DVGW.

Development in the new federal states

In the GDR, the urban water management was divided into 15 water and sewage companies ( VEB WAB), each of which corresponded to a district of the GDR . With reunification , the VEBs were transferred to 660 municipal companies (remunicipalisation). At the same time, oversized systems, especially sewage treatment plants, were built so that the new municipal companies could hardly bear the cost burden and were hardly economically viable. In addition, in the first reunification euphoria, the West German wastewater model was adopted without changes. Instead of working on inexpensive and effective decentralized wastewater treatment processes, centralized processes with kilometer-long main collectors were set up. According to an analysis by the Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives for Environmental Protection (BBU), the bad planning was also due to the fact that some West German engineering firms were talking to the unsuspecting mayors overpriced and unsuitable systems for water supply and wastewater disposal.

All of these reasons together led to the fact that in the mostly sparsely populated eastern German states, plants were built that cannot be operated economically and burden consumers with disproportionately high contributions and fees. According to the BBU, politicians, experts and citizens are now faced with the paradoxical situation that the water and wastewater associations are in many cases too small, but their systems are often designed much too large. According to the BBU, it would have made sense to install decentralized hardware , but keep the software centrally. This would have meant decentralized or semi-decentralized systems, which, however, would have been centrally managed and controlled by larger water and wastewater associations with a high level of know-how and qualified staff - with a high degree of voice and transparency for consumers.

Recent developments: Debate on liberalization and modernization

In 2000, a study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Economics stimulated the liberalization of the drinking water supply and the competition between neighboring supply companies in analogy to the electricity and telecommunications sectors. The proposal met with sharp criticism, including from the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) and the municipal associations, who feared negative consequences for health and the environment. The liberalization proposal was not pursued any further. However, the number of public-private partnerships has increased and the trend towards the creation of local municipal companies under a private legal form continues.

In response to the liberalization debate, the Bundestag passed a resolution on sustainable water management in 2001 at the request of the SPD and the Greens. The decision rejected liberalization of the water sector, but recommended merging smaller utilities, increasing competitiveness and general modernization of the sector, including through systematic benchmarking . In 2005, the six relevant associations adopted a resolution promoting benchmarking based on a method developed by the International Water Association.

Efficiency

Water losses

Water losses in the distribution network were estimated at only 7% in 2001 compared to 11% in 1991. According to a study commissioned by BGW, the corresponding losses are 19% in England and Wales, 26% in France and 29% in Italy. This means that the water losses in Germany are not only the lowest among these four countries, but also the lowest in the world. The study claims that its methodology allows an accurate comparison, among other things by deducting water used as fire fighting water and cleaning pipes from the losses in all countries compared. This corresponds to the definition of non revenue water set by the International Water Association.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking has long been used by German utility companies, but not in a systematic and comprehensive way. In 1998, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, together with the RWI economic research institute and 14 utilities, organized an ideas competition to reduce the costs of drinking water supply and wastewater disposal. In this context, criteria were developed to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the utilities. Participating companies report that their operating costs have fallen by around 5% after two to three years. DVGW and DWA have jointly developed a voluntary benchmarking system on a confidential basis. The associations describe the system as extremely successful.

German utilities have not yet participated in international benchmarking, such as the International Benchmarking Network IB-Net, which makes its results available to the public. IB-Net, which was launched by the World Bank, has so far mainly contained data from utility companies in developing countries.

Prices and Fees

According to the law ( municipal tax laws or operating laws of the federal states), the prices and charges for water and wastewater in Germany must cover the full costs of provision and disposal, including the replacement value of capital investments and the return on equity. Unlike in some other countries (e.g. England and Wales or Chile), the relevant laws do not provide for a review of the efficiency of investments and operations as part of the approval process for price and fee adjustments. One speaks of prices for provision by municipal companies organized under private law and of fees for provision by municipal companies organized under public law.

Antitrust proceedings against excessive water prices

In May 2007, Hesse was the first federal state in the history of the Federal Republic to take action against what it believed to be excessive water prices. The State Ministry of Economics under Alois Rhiel (CDU) commissioned a study in which the water prices in selected Hessian cities were compared with the water prices in cities outside Hesse. Based on the results of the study, the ministry decreed that the municipal companies in Wetzlar, Frankfurt and Kassel should lower their water prices by up to 37 percent. The companies sued the order, but lost both before the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court and in February 2010 before the Federal Court of Justice . The Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU) noted that the price differences were explained by the different local conditions. In its reasoning, the court said that the "sharp sword of the control authority must not be blunted by making excessive demands on the similarity of the comparison companies". Saxony-Anhalt then announced that it would also examine water prices more closely. The Hessian Minister of Economic Affairs Dieter Posch (FDP) spoke of a "great victory for consumers" that would have a "signal effect beyond Hessen". The Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW) criticized that the decision led to "massive legal uncertainty" and "partially called into question" the economic operation. The association announced a “customer balance sheet”, through which “it could be clearly understood” “how the price for the various services is made up at these companies”. In September 2010, the Hessian Association of Cities sent a letter to Prime Minister Volker Bouffier demanding that no further cartel orders be issued. The association also threatened to convert prices into fees nationwide in order to evade cartel supervision. As a result, it was reported that the State Audit Office will now examine the cost structure of the water suppliers in Frankfurt and Kassel instead of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The cartel proceedings will not be pursued further for the time being.

Comparison of water prices and charges

Water prices and charges can be compared in two ways: in the form of a monthly bill for a specific consumption or per cubic meter. Since there are also non-consumption fees, the amount of which varies greatly from one company to another, comparing monthly bills is more appropriate than just comparing fees per cubic meter.

Comparison between German cities

According to a study by Spiegel Online from May 2007, the annual water and wastewater bill for a one-person household with a water consumption of 125 liters per day is an average of 151 euros for all cities examined. However, there are major differences between the regions. Water is particularly expensive in East Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is comparatively cheap in the north and south. In Essen, a one-person household pays 256 euros a year. In neighboring Bochum, the same amount of water costs only half. Overall, the people of Essen have to pay 340 percent of what the citizens of Augsburg pay - water is the cheapest there in a national comparison.

According to a study by the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft , the water and wastewater bill for a four-person household is the most expensive in Potsdam at EUR 786.48 a year and the lowest in Karlsruhe at EUR 226.32. The regionally different costs are due to several factors: External conditions such as topography , population density and type of raw water used differ from region to region and play a decisive role in setting prices and charges.

One explanation for the high water prices in the new federal states is the high investment costs after reunification.

International comparison

According to a study commissioned by BGW in 2006, the average water bill for a household was 82 euros per year, lower than in France and England and Wales. This is also the case if differences in the level of subsidization and in the quality of service are factored in. For wastewater disposal, the average bill of 111 euros per year in Germany is higher than in the comparable countries. When considering subsidies and differences in service quality, however, the fees in Germany are again lower than in France and England and Wales. It should also be noted in the comparisons that the supply companies in Germany calculate the wastewater charges on the basis of drinking water consumption. B. the rainwater, which partly also flows into the sewage pipes, is often not taken into account.

Prices and fees per cubic meter

In 2004, water prices and charges averaged 1.81 euros per cubic meter including VAT and wastewater charges 2.14 euros per cubic meter. Adjusted for inflation, prices and fees have remained stable over the past ten years.

The prices and fees vary greatly depending on the operator. In 2005, the water prices and charges according to BGW were 2.34 euros per cubic meter in Saxony, but only 1.31 euros per cubic meter in Schleswig-Holstein. The consulting company NUS regularly compares water prices in 16 industrialized countries, using the prices per cubic meter as a benchmark. According to the NUS, the water prices in Germany with the equivalent of 2.25 US dollars together with those in Denmark were the highest of the 16 countries.

However, the high prices and charges per cubic meter in Germany can also be explained by the fact that water consumption in Germany is relatively low and the majority of the costs of drinking water supply and wastewater disposal do not depend on the quantity. A lower consumption can therefore lead to higher prices and charges after some time due to the cost recovery requirement, so that the amount of the water bill hardly changes.

water meter

water meter

Almost all buildings in Germany have water meters . However, most rental apartments in older buildings do not have their own water meters, so that tenants have little financial incentive to save water. In such cases, the costs are charged either per person or per square meter.

Indirect fees

Fees for water abstraction and wastewater levy are paid by the utility companies to the respective federal state. They go into the utility costs and are indirectly billed to the consumer.

Water withdrawal fee. Thirteen federal states in Germany currently charge a water abstraction fee. The structure of the tax structure is not uniformly regulated and differs with regard to a survey on groundwater and / or surface water, the amount, the purposes of use and the exception regulations for different user groups.

Wastewater levy. According to the Waste Water Tax Act , utilities are also obliged to pay a waste water charge for discharge into bodies of water, the amount of which depends on the harmfulness of the waste water. The harmfulness is measured by the chemical oxygen demand , the content of phosphorus , nitrogen , organic halogen compounds and metals and the toxicity to fish eggs. The wastewater tax is intended to create an incentive to purify wastewater beyond the legally prescribed level. About three percent of the costs of wastewater disposal are due to wastewater taxes.

Investment and finance

Sector investments amount to around eight billion euros (100 euros per capita) annually, including 5.5 billion euros for wastewater disposal and 2.5 billion euros for drinking water supply. Funding is provided through debt securities and consumer fees. These are taken out by the municipalities as municipal bonds or by the utility companies themselves. The KfW provides long-term loans of up to 30 years maturity (Kommunalkredit), which are also used for drinking water supply and sanitation. According to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety , the water utilities invest around 2 billion euros annually to maintain their systems.

Pressure to change

Enhanced over several decades complex socio-technical system of water supply and sanitation is increasingly coming under pressure to change. In addition to the increasing demands on resource efficiency and ecological sustainability , there are especially problems that arise due to demographic changes and climate change . Due to the population decline in Germany, the systems designed for growing consumption are increasingly underutilized and in some cases have already fallen below functional thresholds. This phenomenon can be observed particularly in the new federal states , where structurally weak regions are affected by strong emigration movements. The problem is exacerbated by a change in consumer behavior (“saving water”), more economical household technologies and a drastic decline in commercial water consumption. Climate change is also affecting the water sector, as the drainage systems are more stressed due to increased periods of heavy rainfall. On the other hand, longer periods of drought lead to bottlenecks in regional water supply.

See also

literature

  • Arbeitsgemeinschaft Trinkwassertalsperren e. V. (ATT), Federal Association of Energy and Water Management e. V. (BDEW), German Federation of Associated Water Management e. V. (DBVW), German Association of the Gas and Water Industry e. V., Technical-Scientific Association (DVGW), German Association for Water Management, Sewage and Waste e. V. (DWA), Association of Municipal Enterprises e. V. (VKU): Profile of the German water industry 2008
  • Thomas Kluge , Jens Libbe (ed.): Transformation of network- bound infrastructure. Strategies for municipalities using the example of water (= Difu contributions to urban research. Vol. 45). Difu, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-88118-411-2 .
  • Hans-Jürgen Leist: Water supply in Germany. Criticism and possible solutions (= university publications on sustainability. Vol. 35). Oekom-Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-86581-078-6 (At the same time: Hannover, Univ., Diss., 2007: Use of water resources and drinking water supply from the perspective of integrated environmental protection. ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Federal Statistical Office: General Economy & Environment - Water Management - Water Management
  2. ↑ a b c ATT / BGW / DBVW / DVWG / DWA / VKU: Profile of the German Water Management Industry 2005 , p. 26th
  3. ↑ a b Metropolitan Consulting Group: VEWA - Comparison of European water and wastewater prices , p. 4 of the executive summary
  4. ↑ a b Metropolitan Consulting Group: VEWA - Comparison of European water and wastewater prices , p. 7 of the executive summary
  5. ↑ a b c Federal Statistical Office ( Memento from February 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g ATT / BGW / DBVW / DVWG / DWA / VKU: Profile of the German Water Management Industry 2005 , p. 7-14
  7. ↑ An overview of water facts. (PDF; 97 kB) BDEW, January 1, 2011, p. 6 , archived from the original on January 21, 2011 ; Retrieved January 21, 2011 .
  8. ↑ DVGW.eV (Ed.): Water Information No. 81 08/2013 . Planning, construction and operation of water distribution systems with a view to assessing and avoiding germs. WVGW mbH, August 2013, ISSN  0176-3504 , p. 12 . P. 5 Table of contents ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wvgw-shop.de
  9. ↑ BDEW: Overview of water facts (as of 2010). (PDF) (No longer available online.) Federal Association of Energy and Water Management , archived from the original on October 19, 2010 ; Retrieved October 3, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bdew.de
  10. ↑ Mark Steinhäuser: Everything in the flow. Water is like electricity and gas: despite privatization, the vital raw material is becoming more expensive. In: sueddeutsche.de. sueddeutsche.de GmbH, August 18, 2008, accessed on January 31, 2011 : "While the electricity and gas market in Germany has been largely privatized, more than 90 percent of the water supply is in municipal hands."
  11. ↑ Berliner Wasserbetriebe
  12. ↑ Rudolf Meyer: The example of North Rhine-Westphalia: the situation and current challenges of drinking water supply in Germany using the example of Gelsenwasser AG ( memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , June 4, 2005, and Gelsenwasser @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kircheundgesellschaft.de
  13. ↑ Hamburg Wasser ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hamburgwasser.de
  14. ↑ Mainova
  15. ↑ http://www.rheinenergie.com/de/unternehmensportal/ueber_uns/rheinenergie/index.php RheinEnergie AG - The company
  16. ↑ Stadtwerke Munich
  17. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : Water supplier wants to escape Posch's access, February 11, 2010
  18. ↑ Jens Anker: Longing for cheap water. Buyback. In: Berliner Morgenpost. Axel Springer Verlag, May 10, 2011, accessed on May 10, 2011 .
  19. ↑ a b Nikolaus Geiler: East Germany: Drinking water straight into the sewer system? - The special purpose associations are economically too small, but the sewage treatment plants are too big ( memento of the original from April 26, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Deutscher Naturschutzring Rundbrief 06 / 07.02, with reference to the circular of the Working Group on Water of the Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives Environmental Protection (BBU) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dnr.de
  20. ↑ BMWi / Evers et al. 2000 ( PDF )
  21. ↑ Federal Environment Agency sees high health and environmental protection standards at risk , November 20, 2000
  22. ↑ Bundestag proposal: Sustainable water management (PDF; 184 kB), October 17, 2001
  23. ↑ International Benchmarking Network
  24. ↑ Federal Ministry of Education and Research: Key figures in the drinking water supply ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmbf.de
  25. ↑ International Benchmarking Network IB-Net
  26. ↑ Drinking water could become cheaper . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 3, 2010, No. 28, p. 9.
  27. ↑ Manfred Köhler: Water supplier wants to escape Posch's access . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 11, 2010, No. 35, p. 39.
  28. ↑ Hessian Ministry of Economics, Transport and Regional Development: BGH decision in the Enwag proceedings has a signal effect and is nationwide trend-setting  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , February 2, 2010@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.wirtschaft.hessen.de  
  29. ↑ Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft (BDEW) ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Judgment leads to massive legal uncertainty ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , February 2, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bdew.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bdew.de
  30. ↑ Martin Murphy: The water market regulation stalls . In: Handelsblatt , October 13, 2010, p. 30.
  31. ↑ a b c Spiegel Online : Expensive drinking water - consumers pay hundreds of euros too much , May 29, 2007
  32. ↑ Focus: In the East, water is much more expensive , August 26, 2008
  33. ↑ German Bundestag (17th electoral term) printed matter 17/1046. (PDF; 68 kB) In: Answer of the Federal Government to printed matter 17/868. March 16, 2010, p. 4 , archived from the original on January 24, 2011 ; Retrieved January 24, 2011 .
  34. ↑ Marcel Fälsch, Erik Gawel, Robert Holländer, Katharina Kern, Wolfgang Köck, Stefan Möckel and Thomas Völkner: Further development of wastewater tax and water withdrawal fees to a comprehensive water usage tax  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective . Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ and Institute for Infrastructure and Resource Management (IIRM), University of Leipzig on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency, February 2011, p. 8@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ufz.de  
  35. ↑ Law on Charges for the Discharge of Wastewater into Waters , 1976, Annex to Paragraph 3
  36. ↑ BMU: Statistics Drinking Water Supply ( Memento of the original from October 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , As of February 2011, based on data from the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmu.de