Access to municipal water and wastewater – central government efforts concerning public water services

Despite known risks associated with inadequate maintenance and renovation of the municipal water and wastewater infrastructure, the Government has not ensured that the central government’s efforts cover these aspects. The Government’s management has primarily focused on municipalities’ responsibility to expand public water services to geographical areas that do not have such services today. This has meant that issues of maintenance and renovation have been overlooked. The Government has only to a limited extent followed up and used supervision to obtain knowledge of how municipalities are discharging their responsibilities.

Although the Government has launched several inquiries that have dealt with the issue of public water services to varying degrees, few of the resulting proposals have led to any measures. In one of these measures, the Government’s implementation has failed. When a provision in the Public Water Services Act was introduced requiring each municipality to have an up-to-date water service plan, the Government did not ensure the presence of central government guidance and follow-up of the requirement. It is the assessment of the Swedish National Audit Office that this may make it difficult to fulfil the expectations of the water service plans.

Central government efforts concerning public water services involve government agencies in the food, environmental and urban planning areas. Several of these government agencies have expressed the need for more and closer cooperation. The Swedish National Audit Office notes that it is the responsibility of the government agencies to ensure that any collaboration they need is achieved. However, the Swedish National Audit Office considers that the cross-sectoral nature of this area, in which responsibility is shared between many government agencies, could merit special governance towards more formalised collaboration.

County administrative boards conduct supervision to ensure that municipalities fulfil their obligation under the Public Water Services Act to meet the need for water services. The Swedish National Audit Office considers that supervision has been both limited and ineffectual. Supervision is mainly reactive, in that supervisory actions are primarily performed following complaints lodged by property owners. This approach risks leading to supervision being conducted in municipalities and in areas where property owners are most active, rather than where the greatest risks to human health or the environment exist. County administrative boards’ supervision has focused on municipalities’ obligation to expand public water services to new geographical areas, rather than on their responsibility for maintaining water and wastewater facilities through maintenance and renovation. This is despite the fact that these aspects also form part of the county administrative boards’ supervisory responsibility, according to the Swedish National Audit Office’s assessment.

For more than a year, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management has been commissioned with providing supervisory guidance to county administrative boards. However, this task is not clearly defined and, thus far, has not had any clear effect on county administrative boards’ supervision.

Central government agencies’ efforts to support municipalities in their responsibilities under the Public Water Services Act have been relatively limited. The audit shows that municipalities nevertheless have access to relatively extensive support and guidance through the trade association Svenskt Vatten. In practice, the central government’s limited guidance to municipalities has meant that it has ceded this governance to Svenskt Vatten. The Swedish National Audit Office considers that the lack of central government guidance to municipalities upon the introduction of the requirement for municipal water service plans may, in some cases, lead to governance that is not fully in line with the intentions of the Riksdag or the Government. One of the aims of introducing the municipal water service plan requirement was that it would bring about an effect on municipalities’ maintenance and renovation of water and wastewater infrastructure‑. Although it is too early to evaluate the introduction of the requirement, the audit has shown that this effect is very likely to be weak. This is in part due to the lack of central government direction regarding the content of water service plans.