“No one wants to lose his best asset”, says Erich Haider, leader of the Upper Austrian Social Democrats, who views the outcome as neither a personal nor a party political victory, but one of citizen rights. The Upper Austrian SPÖ had closely tied their anti-privatisation campaign to water supply, successfully nourished public fears and this way managed to gather over 90,000 signatures against the project so far. The “citizen initiative in the public’s interest” (as the SPÖ called it), originally scheduled to end on 2nd of March, has now become futile after the conciliatory move of ÖVP and Greens also regarding an alternative solution. All political party representatives in Upper Austria want to return to the negotiating table.

The alternative solution envisaged a partial sale outside a stock exchange framework, with 51 % of EAG equity shares remaining with the provincial government, 8 % going to TIWAG, some 10 % to Linz AG, and 15 – 20 % to various other enterprises. Besides, TIWAG would have acquired 49.9 % of the subsidiary Energie AG Service- und Beteiligungsverwaltung (a move not supported by the government of Salzburg!), which owns a 26 % share of Salzburg AG. This move would have earned EAG up to € 300 million of fresh capital – € 100 million more than originally planned.

While the temporarily thwarted partial privatisation without doubt has a considerable influence on EAG’s further investment in CEE countries (e.g. waste disposal), EAG’s water division will remain of particular interest to the local population. “Despite the excessive debate about water, Upper Austria’s main water supplier WDL GmbH achieved a good result in 2007 and was remarkably successful in several areas”, says WDL managing director Christian Hasenleithner.

H2OÖ successful in Bavaria

A case in point is the water supply line that was built across the border to Burghausen, Bavaria, and opened after a construction period of merely twelve months. Since the completion of the 4.9 million € project in June 2007, WDL has been supplying 20,000 Bavarians with “H2OÖ” drinking water. A milestone on the way to project execution was the underpass beneath the Salzach River, which was successfully completed as planned and within record time. The project centerpiece is the waterworks at Weilhartsforst in Upper Austria, for which three wells at depths of 55 and 67 metres were dug.

The supply piping of Burghausen up to the transfer pit on the German banks of the Salzach river is 11 kilometres long, transferring 1,500,000 m3 of water to end users annually (up to 6,000 m3 daily). Since October, WDL has won three new H2OÖ customers: St. Marienkirchen near Schärding, Suben and Altschwendt. Preparation activities for pipe installation are already underway. The strongest motor for WDL’s growth most recently has been the sewer services which the enterprise started offering in 2007.

Main focus is on quality assurance in new sewer construction and sewer operation, drawing on support from 18 TV inspection and pressure flow monitoring vehicles in eight different locations. Last year, WDL carried out inspection services in 1,000 km of sewer piping in Austria. The company is also increasingly awarded contracts to carry out water supply monitoring. Although in Austria the trend towards outsourcing public services has stagnated in recent years, WDL has managed to win new customers with its innovative solutions. In Upper Austria, the enterprise currently provides its services to several communities, two water and three waste management associations.

Such services (in this case those of Energie AG Wasser) are even more successful abroad, where already more than 400 contracts with public authorities have been concluded. The number of customers in these markets has meanwhile risen to over 700,000! The biggest success lately has been the award of a ten-year contract to operate the supraregional water supply network JVS in Southern Bohemia, comprising the water conditioning plant in Plav, 550 km of supply pipes, as well as other installations necessary for supply such as pumping stations and elevated tanks.

Each year up to 20 million m3 of drinking water are supplied. Says Christian Hasenleithner: “These few examples already show that our group’s water division has survived the EAG debacle fairly well and will remain a competent and reliable partner to local authorities also in the future.”
(Source: aqua press Int. 1/2008)