Abstract
This paper is related to Greece’s water policy as it was formulated after the incorporation of Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60. We examined the status and evolution of constitutional provisions for the protection and management of water resources spanning from the first Greek Constitution of 1843 up to the current constitutional text of 1975 as formulated in 2008 with the incorporation of its third revision. In parallel, we investigated the Greek water pricing legal framework in accordance with Article 9 "Recovery of costs for water services" of the WFD. We compared the actual rates of water services as set by Municipal Water Supply Sewerage Companies (DEYAs) operating in 11 cities across Greece. The findings reveal that there are considerable problems and delays in the implementation of WFD. Regarding municipal water pricing policies, we concluded that DEYAs do not follow a unified and structured pricing scheme. Furthermore, several companies do not discriminate between data costs either per service (water supply, sewerage) or per use (water supply, irrigation, etc.). Finally, it is evident that none of them has yet adopted the relevant provisions set by the European directive for full cost recovery and water pricing reflecting financial, environmental and water resources costs.
Highlights
The first formalities of principles and rules relating to water have appeared during the period of the Ionian philosophers, in the 6th century BC, in Asia Minor, where the personality of Thales of Miletus, who first admitted that the land floats in the water like a board and that water, is the original substance of everything (Cheller-Nestle, 1990)
Much progress has been made in water protection in Europe, but after almost 30 years of European water legislation, the demand for further action is expressed, in order to conserve adequate supplies of a resource for which demand is continuously increasing
Demand management can be achieved through a series of actions relating to the minimization of transport losses, water reuse, and efficient use of water resources
Summary
The first formalities of principles and rules relating to water have appeared during the period of the Ionian philosophers, in the 6th century BC, in Asia Minor, where the personality of Thales of Miletus, who first admitted that the land floats in the water like a board and that water, is the original substance of everything (Cheller-Nestle, 1990). The law, as a historical phenomenon, initially appears in the primitive forms of the rules, as an unwritten, sacred law, to gradually evolve, from basic private law, into the present-day concept of public law, as a set of rules, reasonably binding people's relationships. In this context, the first rules on the use and disposal of water were customarily formed, on the basis of ownership. During the 19th century, after the increase of drinking water consumption and the aggravation of public health problems, private water and sewerage companies began to be replaced in almost all European countries by municipal enterprises (Hall David et al, 2006). The water and sanitation services became a monopoly (Pakos, 1992) since local authorities operated only one enterprise to produce at the lowest possible cost of the total quantity requested
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