European Commission

Recast of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive brings new challenges not only in the water management sector

Ing. Daniela Mertová – 4/2024

This article presents the main elements of the recast of Council Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban wastewater treatment, which lays down rules for the collection, treatment, and discharge of urban wastewater in order to protect the environment and human health. In addition to strengthening existing requirements, the text of the new Directive, as provisionally agreed, introduces a significant number of new obligations to be achieved within ambitious deadlines.

Fundamental revision of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive provokes conflicting reactions from European Union member states

Mgr. Tomáš Gremlica – 4/2023

Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21st May 1991, the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD), entered into force 32 years ago, which is a respectable age for a legal regulation. Since then, through the consistent implementation of its requirements, good results in water protection have been achieved in practice. Between 1990 and 2014, there was a reduction in the amount of pollutants in treated and discharged urban waste water for organic pollution expressed as BOD5 by 61 %, for total nitrogen by 32 %, and for total phosphorus by 44 %. The extensive support pro-vided to cities and municipalities from EU financial instruments as well as from national sources and the relatively strict application of sanctions have led, according to data published by the European Commission (EC), to the fact that currently 98 % of waste water in the EU is effectively collected and removed of and 92 % properly treated. Until now, the Directive’s requirements have primarily focused on centralized systems for the collection, removal, and treatment of waste water in agglomerations producing loads at the level of 2,000 population equivalent (PE) and more.