Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2016 (96. évfolyam)

2016 / 3. szám - HISTORICAL SNAPSHOT - Juhász Endre - Major Veronika: Sanitation in Hungary

Endre Juhász & Veronika Major: Sanitation in Hungary

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on farmlands. The disposal of 190-200 thousand tons of sewage sludge dry matter per annum is a critical issue these days.

In 2011, after the Act No.CCIX of 2011 on water public utility service came into force, the transformation of structure of water utility sector has begun. The number of water utility companies has been decreased from 400

(2011) to 42 (2015). In the current economic environment (utility cost reduction, tax burdens without financial resources), with shrinking revenues and growing expenditure the water utility sector reached its limit concerning room for increasing efficiency. By 2014, because of utility cost reduction and introduction of utility tax the sector became loss-making (URL3).

Figure 15. Ratio of different wastewater treatment level (in percentage of total treated wastewater) (Source: URL3)

Figure 16. Wast water treatment capacity ofHungary, amount of treated wastewater and utilization of the capacity between 2000

and 2013 (Source: URL3)

COMPARISON OF WASTEWATER COLLECTION AND TREATMENT WITH EU COUNTRIES

Based on EUROSTAT data (2013) Fig. 17. shows the ratio of households connected to wastewater collection network and Fig. 18. shows the ratio of households connected to wastewater treatment plants.

Figure 17. Population connected to urban wastewater collecting system, in some EU Member States (Source: URL4)