Abstract
The German drinking water sector has a long and stable history. Contrary to other sectors of general interest, such as electricity, gas, telecommunications, and postal services, it has not experienced major reorganization induced by liberalization or technological change. It is organized in local monopolies with about 6000 small-sized water utilities, the majority owned by the local municipality. Current challenges emerge from changing demand patterns linked to demographic trends, as well as from rising costs of water purification due to pollution from agricultural land use.
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Notes
- 1.
The main processes for nitrate removal include biological denitrification, reverse osmosis, and ion exchange (CARIX). According to the German Environment Agency, in 2017 there were three water utilities which applied biological denitrification in plants built explicitly for this purpose (Wasserwerk Broichhof, Wasserwerk Stadtwerke Aschaffenburg, Wasserwerk Frankfurt Flughafen). Furthermore, an unknown number of water plants remove nitrate jointly with other composites such as sulfate in processes of desalination.
- 2.
In some cases, water is extracted far away from consumption points and transported over long distances (Fernwasserversorgung). The city of Munich, for instance, is served with water from the Alps, and water extracted in the Harz Mountains is transported to the cities of Hannover, Bremen, and Göttingen. Further long-distance routes exist in the land Baden-Württemberg (Bodenseewasserversorgung), Saxony (Landestalsperrenverwaltung), and Thüringen (Thüringer Fernwasserversorgung) (Bundeskartellamt 2016).
- 3.
According to the Federal Cartel Office, such a behavior could be observed in at least four cases, which further weakened the power of investigation (Bundeskartellamt 2016).
- 4.
This model is based on an approach by Simar and Wilson (2007).
- 5.
For a detailed description of the used data set, see Zschille (2016b).
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Cullmann, A., Rechlitz, J., Stiel, C. (2019). Germany. In: Porcher, S., Saussier, S. (eds) Facing the Challenges of Water Governance. Palgrave Studies in Water Governance: Policy and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98515-2_6
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