04 November 2020 / Vienna, Austria
Do we Speak Danube? - The State of the Sector 2018 Update, key sections now available in six Languages
Contributed by:
Voice of the Danube
04 November 2020

The Danube Water Program State of the Sector Report 2018 provides comprehensive, in-depth, and extremely valuable insights for researchers, decision-makers and opinion leaders with a stake in the Danube region. Originally written in English, the Executive Summary and Country Notes are now available in five languages of the region. Pick your download.

Recently, one speaker at the first Danube Water Forum remarked that while not being the world's longest, or hugest, the Danube is the world's most international river basin. Now excerpts of the most recent report on the state of the region's water sector has been translated into five additional languages to improve access for experts and representatives in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.

The State of the Sector Report is the Danube Water Program's flagship publication. Launched in 2015, and updated in 2018, it is sometimes called the “SoS”, as in “SoS 2015” or “SoS 2018”. Which is a bit unfair, because the report does not send emergency calls, on the contrary: It covers seven years of success and progress in many respects. It intends to document and inform water services policies and their outcomes in 16 countries of the Danube region with an in-depth analysis of the region’s challenges and advances in providing sustainable water and wastewater services for everybody.

Three years after the initial report, a comprehensive update provides insights into the development between 2015 and 2018, specifically on utility performance and cost efficiency. It includes newly available evidence in key areas not covered in the SoS 2015 and identifies key risks and knowledge gaps regarding of climate change, referring to an upcoming report on Water Security in the Danube Region.

The State of the Sector report update 2018 focuses on progress on the regional level and in individual countries. It examines emerging trends in four dimensions: (i) the level of access to water supply and sanitation (WSS) services, (ii) the quality of services provided (and customer satisfaction with it), (iii) the performance, and (iv) efficiency of service providers, and the financing of services.

All this is valuable and important information, worth the attention of decision-makers and stakeholders in both the economy and the public sector. Yet up to now, key messages from the SoS Update 2018 have only been only available in English. To facilitate dissemination and outreach in electronic format, it was decided to elaborate translations in languages of the region.

As a result, the SoS 2018 Executive Summary and Country Notes have now been published in five additional languages, giving experts and representatives in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine easier access to vital information.

To pick your preferred language and download, please follow the link below!