Abstract
The foundation of the Alliance of Community-Owned Water Services in Europe (ACOWAS-EU), established during the consultation period for the 2020 recast of the European Drinking Water Directive, has shone a new light on community-owned drinking water supplies (CoDWS). CoDWS are drinking water supplies that are administered, managed, and owned by the local community membership that each supply serves. This paper reviews the presence of CoDWS within the five founding regions of ACOWAS-EU—Austria, Denmark, Finland, Galicia in Spain, and Ireland—and the co-operative model structure that underpins the sector. Although the co-operative structure for CoDWS has been prominent since the mid-20th century (and sometimes even earlier), there is a dearth of research into the sector’s importance and existence in an international context. Through a detailed case study, the Irish CoDWS sector (known in Ireland as the group water scheme sector) is analysed in depth, in terms of both its evolution and the opportunities and challenges it faces today. Areas, such as water quality, biodiversity, education, and community-involvement are discussed in particular, providing key learnings that may also be of benefit to the other CoDWS sectors within ACOWAS-EU and further afield.
Highlights
Water services are defined in Article 2 (38) of the European Union Water FrameworkDirective [1] as all services that provide for households, public institutions, or any economic activity (a) abstraction, impoundment, storage, treatment, and distribution of surface water or groundwater; (b) waste-water collection and treatment facilities, which subsequently discharge into surface water
A recast of the Drinking Water Directive [3] was approved by the Commission on 16 December, 2020, and member states have until January 2023 to transpose it into national legislation
In Finland, the first registered water co-operative was established in Pispala, near the city of Tampere in 1907 [15], which resulted in the community not having to travel significant distances to retrieve drinking water in this geographically limited area
Summary
Water services are defined in Article 2 (38) of the European Union Water Framework. Directive [1] as all services that provide for households, public institutions, or any economic activity (a) abstraction, impoundment, storage, treatment, and distribution of surface water or groundwater; (b) waste-water collection and treatment facilities, which subsequently discharge into surface water. The report identified that most European countries have a mix of the first three management models, with a general trend towards public and private delegated management, with the majority of water services being in public (state) ownership. For this reason, there has been little recognition of the community-owned water services sector across Europe. Most European countries do not differentiate between CoDWS and public supplies when monitoring and reporting water quality data in accordance with the Drinking Water Directive, instead separating water supply zones into small (less than 5000 population supplied) and large (>5000 population served) supplies. A sizeable number of these supplies operate under a co-operative model structure, few studies to date have been undertaken on CoDWS and/or its co-operative governance structure
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
