Water industry

Overview

Organizational structure

Ownership of water infrastructure and operations

• local government - the most usual structure worldwide, public utility
• national government - in many developing countries, especially smaller ones
• private ownership - relatively few examples outside Water privatisation in England and Wales
• co-operative ownership and related NGO structures, public utility

  Operations

• local government operating the system through a municipal department, municipal company, or inter-municipal company
• local government outsources operations to private experts sector,
• national government operations
• private water operators owns the system
• * BOTs - private sector building parts of a water system and operating it for an agreed period before transferring to public sector ownership and operation.
• cooperation and NGO operators

  Functions

• Integrated water system
• Separation by function, though some Water Supply Companies have merged beyond municipal or provincial borders.
• Other separation

  Standards

• In the UK, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and the Environment Agency.
• In the United States, drinking water standards for public water systems are set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA issues water pollution control standards in conjunction with state environmental agencies, pursuant to the Clean Water Act.
• For countries within the European Union, water-related European Union directives are important for water resource management and environmental and water quality standards. Key directives include the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 1992 requiring most towns and cities to treat their wastewater to specified standards, and the Water Framework Directive 2000, which requires water resource plans based on river basins, including public participation based on Aarhus Convention principles.
• International Standards on water service management and assessment are under preparation within Technical Committee ISO/TC 224.