ASPECTS RELATED TO THE RESTRUCTURING OF THE ROMANIAN WATER SECTOR OPERATORS

5th International Scientific Conference - SGEM2005, www.sgem.org, SGEM2005 Conference Proceedings/ ISBN: 954-918181-2, June 13-17, 2005, 747- 752pp

ABSTRACT

After a period of more than four decades of centralized management, Romania has
decided to return to local autonomy principle, in this way transferring major and concrete
responsibilities to the local administration. Currently 17 municipalities, each with more than
150.000 inhabitants, have benefited from capital investment programs financed mainly by EU
and IFI for rehabilitation of their water and wastewater infrastructure. In Romania, out of
263 urban localities, around 230 are considered small and medium-sized towns (population
less than 150.000) that have not been able to attract financing from either the international
financial institutions or private operators. As present fragmented structure for provision of
municipal service are not favourable to effective management of investment resource and
service provision, new governmental strategy will aim to motivate groups of towns to begin to
work together in a format of Association of Municipalities and to concession their water
supply system to a Regional Water Operator. The main objective of this programme is to
create new Regional Water Operators having municipalities as shareholders, capable to
attract financing sources to improve the service quality, to benefit from economies of scale
and to ensure the rational use of water resources. The paper will present the institutional
architecture established which can be used a model for the regionalisation process required
by EC Directives.