vol 77 n° 5 2011 - Office International de l'Eau

STUDII ŞI CERCETĂRI
socio-political reception of sewage sludge recycling
can go along the road to market
orientation.
Some of these 400 water companies
are now engaging in integration,
with local authority support.
Press coverage of some of
these developments has reported
threats to security of supply arising
from political arguments [16].
Multi-stage sludge recycling
procedures have now come to the
forefront as perhaps the only way
to implement both the energetic
approach and recovery of nutrients
(phosphorus).
Sludge management accounts
for an ever-higher proportion of
treatment costs – even up to 45-50
% [17]-, but the setting of service
charges is an increasingly political
issue. The constraining factors arise
from the nature of infrastructural
facilities.
“The stakes are much higher
than the costs of facilities and the
efficiency of their use. Facilities
with long lifetimes dictate further
developments after they are built.
International experience shows
that it is difficult to make changes
to completed systems.” [2].
The role of the government is
to support recycling (agricultural,
renewable energy, etc.) and bring
environmental considerations into
balance with economic and social
factors (service charges, job crea-
tion).
Because of the growing costs
of water supply service and sewage
treatment, there was a significant
growth in service charges in the
last 20 years. Figure 3 shows that
towns are more likely to be in the
over-2.5% range if their population
is less than 6500. These changes
are a warning to take great care in
selecting wastewater and sludge
handling technology for smaller
settlements, especially for villages
of less than 2000 PE.
“Figure 3 shows the average
burden of charges among households
connected to both the water
supply and drainage in the service
areas of different companies (water
utilities). Each column corresponds
to one company. The burden of
charges for the two services together
varies between 1.5% and
3.5% of income. For most companies,
the figure lies between 2%
and 3%, which is under the frequently-published
threshold of 3-
4.5%, but is considerably above
the 2004 Central European average
of 1.6-1.7%.” [18].
5. Conclusions
This paper is an attempt to
summarise changes in socio-political
attitudes to sewage sludge
management through a focus on
the Hungarian situation.
Figure 2. Socio-political factors in sewage sludge management
Over the last 20 years, domestic
water consumption has decreased,
24 www.romaqua.ro nr.5 / 2011