State of the Sector 

The 2015 State of the Sector review consists of a regional report and 16 country notes and analyzes the access to, organization, performance and financing of the water and sanitation services in Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

The report finds that many countries in the Danube region face a double challenge of meeting the high standards of the European environmental acquis while extending sustainable water services to all citizens, leaving 22.5 million people with no access to piped water and 28 million without flush toilets.

The State of the Sector report is being updated in 2018 with the latest data since its first edition. It will:

  • Generate new analysis of identified trends in the last three years on different dimensions, and specifically on utility performance and cost efficiency
  • Incorporate new available evidence in other key areas identified as knowledge gaps in the previous State of the Sector edition, on which the authors endeavoured to undertaking further work under the Danube Water Program and evidence/trends from other ongoing relevant regional initiatives (including gender and age considerations for a modern utility workforce)
  • Identify key risks and knowledge gaps in the area of climate change, in anticipation of a next edition of the State of the Sector under a potential third phase of the Danube Water Program, which will look at broader water security aspects.