The Commission published today the 10th report on the implementation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) that shows an overall improvement in collection and treatment of waste water in Europe’s cities and towns, but points to different success levels between the Member States. The report is part of the Commission’s zero pollution efforts and comes ahead of the Chemicals Strategy which will be adopted in the coming weeks.
The 10th report on the implementation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) shows that compliance rates with EU waste water collection and treatment rules are high and have increased compared to the previous reporting period. This helps prevent pollution of the environment. While the trend remains positive, full compliance with the Directive has not yet been achieved. Finance and planning remain the main challenges for the water service sector.
The report shows that 95% of waste water in the EU is collected and 88% is biologically treated. While the trend is positive, there is still work to do – 1% of urban wastewater is still not collected and over 6% is not sufficiently well treated to meet secondary biological treatment standards. The current level of investments in many Member States is too low to reach and maintain compliance with the Directive in the long term, with several EU towns or cities still needing to build or modernise their infrastructure for collecting waste water, as well as to put modern treatment plants in place.
Source: European Commission
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