“With the draft law to a constitutional amendment to the Vienna Law on Water Supply, the Province of Vienna has paved the way to an adequate protection of the Vienna water,” said Kossina. These measures would provide security for communal water supply plus relevant facilities and properties owned by the federal capital and would also protect general interests, which have not been secured on the federal level yet.

By the way, it is no coincidence that top-ranking representatives from politics, water management, but also artists interested in water have been meeting since 1997 right in this 300-people community at the foot of the Rax Mountain. After all, this picturesque village is situated on the so-called Styrian Water Route, a region that supplies the cities of Vienna and Graz with a major part of their drinking water. “Already at the beginning of this series of events did we get much public attention,” says Gerd Stefanzl, representative of the Styrian Provincial Government and head of the association “Styrian Water Route”; a success which he ascribes to the focal points science, art, politics, and a publicly attractive framework programme.

“Water cake” portioned out

In spite of cancellations caused by air traffic problems after the terror attacks in the USA the Wasserforum was attended by top-ranking experts. Bruno Saurer (Styrian Provincial Government), for example, outlined the major facts of the present situation and called upon the communities not to sell utilities to the private sector. “The problem is that the ‘water cake‘ could be portioned out among a few big global players! They would abuse water mainly to win over the customers (key-word: multi-utility).

Competition with this precious good would definitely thwart Austria’s efforts in view of quality safeguarding and would – under the cover of ‘deregulation‘ – finally lead to new monopolies.” The expert suggested to rely even more on the rationalisation potential among public contractors and to focus on benchmarking. Saurer is not worried about possible drinking water exports because there are hardly any markets around. However, the activities within the EU should be closely observed, particularly with reference to the latest efforts of the Economic Committee of the EU Parliament.

In contrast to the expectations of many a participant stood the contribution by the “principal supporter of privatisation” (according to himself), Christian Helmenstein (Institute of Advanced Studies). Principally, he said, he was well aware of rising water consumption in industrial countries, but also of dropping consumption in the reforming states due to higher water fees. Helmenstein, too, acknowledged the special status of water management and said that privatisation would entail costly regulation measures.

At the same time, groups of contractors could only supply maximally several ten thousand households in an economical way; “as to the efficiency factor of water treatment, the savings potential is only minimal in Austria, the same applies to water distribution. What remains is the efficiency factor of administration, where a savings potential of 3 – 5 percent is realistic.” Helmenstein resuming: “The reasonability of privatisations in Austrian water management is balancing on a knife's edge!”

According to the expert, markets for water exports were mainly to be found in Germany. For exports of bottled water to Italy, Spain and the Arabian countries a brand name would have to be established.

Wilfried Schimon (BMLFUW) underlined right at the beginning of his presentation the principally neutral position of the EU Commission with regard to private or public organisation forms in water management. In connection with liberalisation efforts Schimon quoted a thesis paper issued by the German Ministry of Economics, which – although basically competition-friendly – considers competition on the market only to be feasible under specific conditions (e.g. branch lines to bulk consumers and to defined settlements), but which definitely refuses the sharing of pipelines for quality reasons. According to Schimon, it would, however, be particularly counterproductive to create parallel supply systems. The high-ranking official resuming: “Liberalisation will remain an issue with which we will have to deal. For Austria, this model – originating in countries with ‘water factories’ well known to us – is generally not applicable, because it may have negative effects particularly on our country-wide groundwater protection.”

Paying for air?

Beginning with the words: “Will we also have to pay for air sooner or later?,” Austria’s water law top expert, Franz Oberleitner (BMLFUW), presented his very personal position with regard to the issue “to whom does the water in Austria belong?”. In principle this question has not been clarified completely by the latest adjudication of the Court of Administration. Thus, according to § 3 of the Water Law “spring and ground water belong to the property owner” and he has the right to sell it, on the other hand, water is moving in cycles “and those downstream are lacking what is extracted upstream,” says Oberleitner.

A decision could possibly be taken on the basis of the annual groundwater renewal rate. As to water exports, however, the situation is clear: “Exports bans are not consistent with EU policy, although a primarily regional use of resources can be stipulated,” says Oberleitner. With reference to privatisation/liberalisation of domestic water management, the expert clearly advocated communal responsibility for water supply and disapproved of selling facilities to the private sector.

ÖVGW managing director Robert G. Köck put exaggerated hopes straight: “With regard to the expected general turnover, water exports will not make us immensely rich, particularly because Austria is – once again – simply too late.” As an alternative, Köck suggests offering package solutions consisting of “water utilities, engineering services and the product water,” for which he sees good opportunities in the reforming states.

Towards the end of the meeting Gottfried Wolf, a pioneer of water sales – together with Lorenz Fritz (GS Industriellenvereinigung), Thomas Jozseffi (chairman of the board of the Salinen AG), Robert Nusser (OeBf AG), Hans Sailer (head of the Vienna Waterworks) and one of the hosts, Erich Pöltl (Provincial Councillor of Agriculture, Environment and Nature Conservation, Styria) participated in a panel discussion. Statements ranged from “We can absolutely compete with Evian” (Wolf) to Hans Sailer’s clear words: “The money of the citizens of Vienna will certainly not be used as risk capital for adventures.” In addition, Sailer put the chances for know-how exports to the East into perspective: “Other countries have developed much better technologies for the treatment of polluted groundwater – because that’s what they have in their own country!

In Austria it was hardly necessary to develop these technologies due to our mostly excellent water quality. In other respects the Vienna Waterworks has supported water management in the reforming states for a long time.”

At the end of the Altenberger Wasserforum Federal Minister Wilhelm Molterer rose to thank the organisers, the contributors and the audience and to state the position of the Federal Government laid down in the

Altenberg Water Declaration:
“Austria is one of the richest countries as far as water is concerned. The Federal Government is well aware of the responsibility arising form this fact and has therefore formulated the following primary objectives in sustainable water management:

• permanently preserve the usability of our water resources for future generations
  
• To safeguard the natural state of waters in the best possible way
  
• To protect people and their environment against natural disasters caused by water in a financial way in particular
  
• To guarantee the efficient use of public funds. Countrywide supply and treatment, high environmental standards, the quality of supply, as well as socially acceptable fees shall be secured.
  
• To be able to use the Austrian water resources in an economic way; however, the water demand of the Austrian population and of nature has to be satisfied first.
  
• To retain the principle of unanimity in the management of water resources.”