Photo: BMLFUW/Rita Newman
Wastewater disposal
Wastewater disposal is a central subject of Austria’s water protection policy. The principle of the water protection policy is taking a proactive approach by imposing the obligation of state-of-the-art wastewater treatment. In this way the subsequent cleaning up of contaminated waters is to be avoided.
In this respect, much has been achieved in Austria over the last decades. Essential components in reducing the pollution of groundwater and surface waters are:- the determination of emission limits for industry and trade as well as the consideration of the protection
of water resources already in the planning stage for industrial plants;
- the further development and maintenance of the sewage networks as well as of wastewater purification
plants;
- measures for cleaning up historical contaminated sites, stringent rules for the treatment and disposal of
wastes as well as the implementation of the environmental programme in agriculture.
- Wastewater is put back in circulation only after it has been mechanically and biologically cleaned and
treated to remove the nutrients to a large extent.
Water quality classes
Thanks to the consistent wastewater treatment in Austria already 88 percent of Austria’s rivers have Water Quality Class I or II (in a IV-grade scale).
Biological water quality of the rivers in 2005:
(Relative share in the water quality classes in percent)
- 4 percent: Water Quality Class I: Not affected.
- 35 percent: Water Quality Class I-II: little affected.
- 49 percent: Water Quality Class II: moderately affected.
- 11 percent: Water Quality Class II-III: critically affected.
- 1 percent: Water Quality Class III: heavily affected.
Level of connection to public sewage system
At present about 89 percent of the population are connected to public sewage systems with proper wastewater treatment plants. The remaining about 11 percent of the accumulating wastewater are properly disposed via local plants such as small wastewater treatment plants or cesspools.
Accumulation of wastewater – Types of wastewater treatment
Since 2001 the entire wastewater collected in central sewage systems is purified in sewage treatment plants. In 2001 1.068 million m³/year of wastewater were treated. Of those 100 percent
- 84 percent received a sewage treatment;
- 9.2 percent a mechanico-biological treatment, and
- 6.8 percent were treated through purification systems of individual houses and cesspools.
Subsidisation of the residential water management
The subsidisation of the residential water management for investments in the water supply and wastewater disposal in recent years has particularly benefited the development of the sewage network and wastewater treatment plants.
Nevertheless in sparsely settled rural areas there is still a need to increase connections to wastewater treatment plants; the current percentage is only around 60 % there. Investments in residential water management, besides having a positive impact on water quality, give a strong push to the economy and job market.
In the year 2005 alone subsidies amounting to over € 286 million were paid in the field of residential water management; of this amount € 277 million were paid for residential-area water management at municipal level. The remaining amount was granted for operational wastewater disposal measures and research projects in the field of residential water management.
In this context more than 13,000 jobs were secured or newly created. The federal subsidisation of residential water management encourages also projects that assist communities in the provision of efficient and effective services. It is an important step towards modernisation and improving the competitiveness of the industry.
Benchmarking in wastewater disposal
One of the newly introduced tools, which has been successfully applied in the private sector for quite some time, is benchmarking. As is done with water supply, periodic benchmarking is performed in the area of wastewater disposal. This provides operators with a powerful tool to identify measures of improvement.
02.07.2008, Lebensministerium Öffentlichkeitsarbeit