Implementation of the Action Plan towards sustainable water services

The Commission aims to provide support to Ministry of Climate of Estonia in increasing effectiveness of water management. The support involves implementing both the short-term action plan and developing a long-term strategy. The project should result in increased efficiency and cooperation of Estonian water suppliers.

Context

Estonia has always relied on State aid or EU fund to build its water supply and water treatment infrastructures and to be compliant with the relevant EU directives on water supply and treatment. As a result, water tariffs are insufficient to cover the costs and to ensure maintenance of the existing water supply and treatment plants. An appropriate increase in water tariffs would make water not affordable for large part of the population. A former SRSP 2020 project implemented by OECD looked at this issue and provided an action plan with recommendations for water suppliers to achieve efficiency and limit the increase in water tariffs while maintaining compliance with the current EU directives. Most of the recommendations are difficult to implement and Estonia is asking further support to implement the action plan in the short term and develop a long-term strategy.

Support delivered

The request includes the following support measures:

1. Draft a long-term strategy based on the recommendations form the Action Plan, in particular by performing a number of analysis and assessment of the Estonian situation, for instance on the financial capacity of water suppliers and on different scenarios for water tariffs increases.
2. Support the implementation of the short-term recommendations from the existing Action Plan. For instance, by providing recommendations of how to build financial incentives for water suppliers, how to review water tariff levels or how to benchmark performances of water suppliers.
3. Advising local governments and water companies on consolidation and effectiveness of water entrepreneurship. For instance, by creating fora to enhance cooperation across local authorities.
4. Develop a communication strategy to be implemented throughout the project to ensure participation of stakeholders.

Expected results

The project will results in a number of new measures/incentives in the short-to-medium term to increase efficiency and cooperation of water suppliers, in line with the recommendations in a national long-term strategy.

More about the project

You can read the documents related to the project here: