Implementation of the Water Framework Directive and other ...

Wastewater treatment and WFD 1 st December 2005
implementation in CEE Danube countries Bratislava, Slovakia
In the following I will concentrate on the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and on the
Urban Waste-Water Directive (UWWD).
2 KEY ELEMENTS OF THE WFD AND THE UWWD
The WFD
The central objective of the WFD is to achieve a good status of all bodies of water defined
in article 4 WFD:
• Good surface water status means a good chemical and a good ecological status. Instead
of the latter aim, for water bodies designated as artificial or heavily modified the
objective is to achieve a good ecological potential.
• Good groundwater status means a good quantitative and a good chemical status.
The requirements for the good status are listed in annex V WFD. Exceptions (article 4
WFD) are an integrated part of the environmental objectives.
The key instrument of the WFD for achieving these objectives is a single basin wide
coordinated River Basin Management Plan for each River Basin District including a
Programme of Measures as the crucial part. The process of planning follows a defined very
strict timeframe:
• End of 2003: Legal implementation of the WFD
• End of 2004: Review of the current status of the river basins.
• End of 2006: Monitoring programmes are established
• End of 2009: River Basin Management Plans with Programmes of Measures are
established
• End of 2012: Programmes of Measures are made operational
• End of 2015: The objectives of the WFD are achieved
There are several essential regulations in the WFD concerning waste water treatment:
• the good status as environmental objective including exceptions (article 4)
• a review of the impact of human activities (article 5)
• monitoring of the quality of waters (recipients of sewage!) (article 8)
• recovery of costs for water services (article 9)
• the combined approach (article 10)
• the programme of measures (article 11), particularly the basic measures such as
o reference on other relevant directives as the UWWD or the sewage sludge
directive
o water pricing
o efficient and sustainable water use (recycling of water, closed circuits of industrial
waste water, ...)
o prior authorisation for discharge of waste water laying down emission controls for
the pollutants concerned, periodically reviewed and where necessary updated
o prohibition of direct discharge of pollutants into the groundwater
o prevention of significant losses of pollutants from technical installations
and supplementary measures such as
o economic or fiscal instruments
o emission controls
• strategies against pollution of water (article 16), particularly establishing a list of priority
substances (already done by the Commission – list of 33 substances ) including proposals
of control (not yet done) and identifying the priority hazardous substances to be phased
out in 20 years.
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