Environmental Engineering and Management Journal September/October 2009, Vol. 8, No.5, 1061-1071 http://omicron.ch.tuiasi.ro/EEMJ/ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ REORGANIZATION OF WATER AND WASTE WATER MANAGEMENT IN ROMANIA: FROM LOCAL TO REGIONAL WATER GOVERNANCE Joanne Vinke-de Kruijf 1,2∗ , Valentina Dinica 2 , Denie C.M. Augustijn 1 1 University of Twente, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Water Engineering and Management Department, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands 2 University of Twente, School of Management and Governance, Centre for Clean Technology and Environmental Policy, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands Abstract Romania’s drinking water and wastewater sector is currently going through a process of regionalization. This process involves a replacement of a local-focused governance structure by a regional-focused governance structure. The objective of this paper is to explore and explain this regionalization from a governance perspective. In two case studies, the situation before and after the regionalization are investigated. Analyses of the case studies show that the local-focused governance structure was highly incoherent. This resulted in a lack of financial resources needed to maintain and develop the water infrastructure. Romania’s accession to the European Union affected several governance elements and evoked the regionalization. Real improvements are not visible yet as the time needed for actual services improvements is considerable and governance elements are still adjusting to each other. This means that there is still a need for ongoing support to arrive at a coherent governance structure. Key words: case study, drinking water, governance, regionalization, wastewater ∗ Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: e-mail: joanne.vinke@utwente.nl 1. Introduction During the last decades, the organization of Romania’s water and wastewater sector changed considerably. Before 1990, water utilities in Romania operated as public services at county level, without any central authority or ministry who coordinated their activities. Infrastructure was owned by county councils who had integrated public companies taking care of most public services (e.g. water, waste and energy). After 1990, the organization of water services changed. Romania returned to the local autonomy principle and major responsibilities were transferred to the local communities. To support the autonomy of local councils to manage public services, the legal framework was also adjusted in several ways. Examples of these adjustments are the law on public ownership (no. 213/1998), on concessions (no. 219/1998) and on efficient and adequate providence of public services by local public administrations (no. 215/2001). In the same period, programmes were initiated to assist local authorities with the development of their water services. An example is the Municipality Utility Development Programme (1995-2001), which supported various local operators through investment funds, institutional strengthening and reorganization. However, only a small number of towns benefited from these programmes. In particular, the smaller and medium-sized towns were not able to attract sufficient financial funds to maintain and develop their water and wastewater infrastructure. In 2004, the situation was that only 52% of the Romanian population was connected to the drinking water and sewage system and 71% of the wastewater was not or insufficiently treated (MoE, 2007). This service level does not correspond with the standards of the European Union (EU), which Romania accessed in 2007. Currently, Romania is therefore in a transition period for the implementation of EU directives on drinking water (98/83/EC) and wastewater (91/271/EEC). It now has to comply with the requirement of providing wholesome and clean water for human consumption by the end of 2015. The directive concerning the collection and treatment of urban waste water fully applies by the end of 2018, with intermediate targets “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Romania