Water and Wastewater Services in the Danube Region

To evaluate and reflect the
sustainability of services in the region, an overall sector
maturity assessment was done taking into account four main
dimensions: access to services, quality of services,
efficiency of services, and financing of services. Each of
these dimensions is measured through three simple and
objective indicators. For each indicator, best practice
values are established by looking at the best performers in
the region, and countries closest to those best performers
are deemed to have a more mature sector. A more complete
description of the methodology to assess the sector maturity
is included in the annex of the state of the sector regional
report from the Danube Water Program. The outcomes of this
assessment for the Austrian water sector are presented,
which also shows average and best practices in the Danube
region. The Austrian sector maturity score is 96, which is
significantly higher than the Danube average maturity of 64,
and the highest score in the region. The assessment shows
that, on average, the country performs very well in terms of
access to piped water and flushes toilet, wastewater
treatment coverage, customer satisfaction, continuity of
service, wastewater compliance, collection ratio, and
nonrevenue water.