In this project, OECD examines the long term sustainability of water services: Are the levels of cost recovery, investment and financing sufficient to ensure affordable access to freshwater and sanitation services?

The project on the financial sustainability of WATSAN undertakings is a part of an OECD initiative which addresses the economic basis for sustainable water and sanitation (WATSAN) service provisioning. The OECD research programme aims at finding a way to overcome the financial obstacles to sustainable WATSAN services provisioning and improving the use of economic incentives in water management. This particular project aimed at developing and verifying a methodology to assess the long term sustainable cost recovery of WATSAN undertakings.

The project "Financial sustainability of WATSAN undertakings: Germany case study" aims at testing these pragmatic indicators of cost recovery and financial sustainability of water provisioning.

Ecologic Institute was responsible for conducting the German case study that analysed the German water services on the example of two freshwater provisioning units: Berliner Wasserbetriebe (BWB) and Kommunale Wasserwerke Leipzig (KWL).

R. Andreas Kraemer presented the results at DVWG's WAT 2009 on 31 March 2009 in Berlin. The slides [pdf, 398 kB, German] can be downloaded.

Max Grünig presented revised results at DIW's "Waterday – Workshop on Water Economics and Technology" on 25 February 2010 in Berlin. The slides [pdf, 104 kB, English] can be downloaded.