Water supply and wastewater disposal are particularily cost-intensive in rural areas. From the point of view of secretary general of the Federation of Austrian Industry, Lorenz Fritz, reductions in funding would ask to much of urban water management and have to be stopped as they would cause further urban sprawl. Government building officer Dipl.-Ing. h.c. Dr. Werner Flögl, president of the Austrian Water and Waste Management Association, knows that especially in rural, less densely populated regions it is impossible for the communes to implement the important environment protection measures without grants from public funds. Even though special cost-efficient supply and disposal engineering systems have been developed. Furthermore it would not make sense to use urban water management as an instrument for regional planning.
Austrian urban water management works continually on improving its cost-efficiency without making abatement on environment protection. New forms of cooperation, consistent comparison of efficiency, benchmarking and further technological development will contribute to cost-optimization in urban water management. A cutback in subsidies would be counterproductive both economically and environmentally seen.
The president of the Austrian Gas and Water Association (ÖVGW) SR Dipl.-Ing. Hans Sailer, also argues for the perpetuation of fundings. Subsidies in the field of urban water management are also a benefit for plant construction, which contributes to the global water protection all over the country as well as the protection of the drinking-water reserves, states Sailer. Without subsidies many municipalities will no longer be able to afford investing into plant construction, which will not only have fatal ecological, but als economical consequences.
The Austrian Gas and Water Association (ÖVGW) is an independent special-interest community of Austrian gas and water service suppliers with over 200 members from the water sector. These supply about 5,4 million Austrians (which are around 67 % of the population) with drinking-water. Further information under www.ovgw.at and www.wasserwerk.at
The Austrian Water and Waste Management Association (ÖWAV) is the academic engineering platform in the sector of water- and wastewater management. The 1.900 member organisations, companies and individual members are from the public sector, industry and science.
