Protecting waters is a cornerstone of sustainable development. With only 0.007% of the planet’s surface water suitable for human consumption, protecting it is a priority for leaders on a national and international level. In its most recent analysis and audit report, the State Audit Office of Hungary (SAO) focuses on this issue from different perspectives. In its audit report, the SAO concluded that the Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority’s performance of its tasks related to water utility services was in compliance with the rules in during the audited period. However, the SAO’s analysis showed that, while Hungary has performed well in the safe treatment of wastewater, the water quality of our water bodies has not improved significantly in recent years.
Article P) of the Fundamental Law of Hungary stipulates that domestic water resources are the common heritage of the nation, and that its protection, maintenance and preservation for future generations is the shared responsibility of the state and all its residents.
In recent years, while having gone through a methodological and organisational renewal, the State Audit Office of Hungary has focused on issues that have a broad impact on society and sustainable development. The SAO’s newly published report and analysis explores different approaches to water protection.
The purpose of the SAO’s audit was to assess the execution of certain tasks by the Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority (hereinafter referred to as the “Authority”) in relation to water utilities.
The audit results exposed that, in the audited period, the Authority performed its tasks as required, while also carrying out its supervisory activities in relation to the 11 water utility providers audited in a regular manner. The audit methodology applied included guidelines for complex audits of water utility providers, and successfully ensured the comprehensive inspection of water utility providers and their compliance with the law.
As part of its reporting duties, the Authority published on its website the accounts approved by Parliament for the years 2018–2020. Every two years starting from 2018, in the framework of the User Satisfaction Survey, an independent polling organisation was entrusted with measuring the satisfaction of residential users covered by public service contracts with water utility services. Based on data from the 2018 and 2020 surveys commissioned by the Authority, user satisfaction with water utility services improved from 2018 to 2020.
In addition to its audit, the SAO further examined water protection in the context of an analysis. The analysis looked at Hungary’s progress towards achieving target 6.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals included in the UN 2030 Agenda (improving environmental water quality and reducing the release of pollutants).
Hungary’s performance was analysed against a preset indicator and the related national strategic objectives. Moreoverthe functioning of the monitoring system for tracking the indicators and the way in which resources were made available were assessed.
The analysis found that while Hungary has performed well in the safe treatment of wastewater, the water quality of our water bodies has not improved significantly in recent years. This is partly due to that countries with an industrial background have difficulties in meeting the biological and chemical limit values set out in the Water Framework Directive (this is also the case in Hungary). The analysis underlines that the quality of domestic surface water is largely determined by the fact that 95% of the country’s water courses originate from abroad. Furthermore, low water yields in recent years have also hampered the achievement of water quality objectives.
Domestic water quality data also highlight the ecological paradox of wastewater treatment: the more wastewater is collected in the public networks, the more the organic and nutrient load to surface waters increases due to the increase in wastewater treatment plant discharges. In the case of groundwater, however, improvements will only be seen decades after the pressure has ceased.
For wastewater treatment, the primary objective is to connect as many households as possible to the sewerage network. However, in some places, the capacity to treat wastewater may be less than the collection capacity, as shown by that water utility providers are sometimes forced to refuse connection requests that exceed their capacity.
Access the full SAO report here and the analysis here.
The State Audit Office of Hungary