Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2018 (98. évfolyam)
2018 / 4. szám - FÓRUM - Szabó Iván: Integration, a key to sustainable development in water utility services
56 Hidrológiai Közlöny 2018. 98. évf. 4. sz. CONCLUSION As we saw, the Water Utility Services Act declared the fundamental principle of sustainable development. A way to ensure sustainable development is to integrate water utilities, which does not only mean the consolidation of water utility providers. During the integration, undercapitalised operators employing a few professionals and providing their services in relatively small geographical areas are combined, merged into larger, more capitalised, well-equipped operators with an optimum scale of plant, and, if possible, they can reach the plant size where they can reduce their costs. The Water Utility Services Act declares integration on the level of fundamental principles in the fundamental principle of regionality and cooperation and creates its organisational and legal instruments as well. This Act has established the Chief Water Authority, the regulatory authority, as an organisational instrument, which has promoted integration through the issuance or refusal, as appropriate, of service licences, and it guards the preservation of integration through its exercising of its supervisory rights. The most important legal instrument of the integration was the introduction of the user equivalent. However, the personnel, material and financial conditions specified in the Implementing Decree proved to be of at least same importance. Introduction of the institution of operator of public interest proved to be special instrument of integration, since a service provider was replaced by an operator of public interest; however, in many cases, in the service area of a supplier that failed to conclude an operation contract with the licence-holding water utility provider. Although integration itself has slowed down, but it has not stopped completely, because the organisations are forced to integrate by instruments falling outside the law, such as economic and financial issues, but the increasing shortage of professionals is becoming more and more significant as well. Currently, the greatest issue of water utility services is the long-postponed reconstruction works. Integration of water utilities is one of the most important elements of this process, although there are other ones as well. Water utility providers having optimum scale of plant can utilise the financial assistance for funding the reconstruction works. Integrated water utility providers are therefore the focal points of sustainable development. LITERATURE USED Gy. Bíró (2004). Common rules on contract law and contract law. University Textbook. Novotni Foundation, p. 585. Dr. I. Szabó and M. Garcia Quesada (2017). Historical Waves in Hungarian Water Reform and Implications for Integration Article. Utilities Policy, 2017, Vol. 46, Issue C, pp. 15-21. ./. E. Szilágyi (2014). Integration of Hungarian water utilities from a legal point of view. Pro Futoro 2014/1. Horváth M. T.-Péteri G. (2013). Nem folyik az többé vissza. Az állam szerepének átalakulása a víziközmű-szolgáltatásban [It will not go back anymore. The transformation of the role of the state in the water utilities service.], In: Valentiny P., Kiss F. L., Nagy Cs. I. (Eds.) Verseny és szabályozás, 2012, Budapest, MTA KRTK Közgazdaság-tudományi Intézet, pp.177-200. Legislation The CCIX 2011 Water Utilities Service law. The CCIX 2011 Water Utilities Service. 58/2013 on the implementation of certain provisions of the Act. (11.27.) Government Decree. Act XXII of 2013 on the Hungarian Energy and Utilities Regulatory Office; Act V of 2013 on the Civil Code. Internet http://www.origo.hu/nagyvilag/20170828vizkorlatozas-romaban.html http://nepszava.hU/cikk/l 135560-elnemulhatnak-a- vizcsapok-romaban http://hu.euronews.com/2017/08/15/a-kiszaradasszelen-a-leghosszabb-spanyol-folyo https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320174277_ Water_Policies_and_Conflict_Resolution_of_Pub- lic_Participation_DecisionMaking_Proccsses_Using_Prioritized_OrderedWeighte dAveragingOW A_Operators/2017.10.08./ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319998615_ IntegratedW aterManagement_Approach_for_Vulnerability_Reduction_in_Delhi_ India/2017.10.08./ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318275673_ Identification_of_Optimal_Water_Supply_Portfolios_for _a_Major_City/2017.10.08./ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317888275_ Sustainability_disclosure_among_Italian_water_utilities_ what_and_how_they_report/2017.10.07/ http: //watergo vernance. org/ water- governance/2017.10.08./ http://www.maviz.org/system/files/kpmg- maviz_vizikozmu_agazati_helyzetkep_20150513.pdf ADDITIONAL NOTES [1] There are thousands of publications and research projects on the relationship between “sustainable development” and water management; therefore, it would be impossible to enumerate them here; there are numerous international organisations dealing with this topic itself: The relationship between water and sustainable development was a central topic of the 2016 Water Summit, which was held in Hungary: https://www.budapestwatersummit.hu/vilagtalalkozo/attekintes/attekintes-a-fenntarthato-fejlodesi-celokrol-537 http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainabledevelopment-goals/
