Water supply and sanitation in the Netherlands is provided in good quality and at a reasonable price to the entire population. Water consumption is one of the lowest in developed countries at 128 litres per capita per day and water leakage in the distribution network is one of the lowest in the world at only 6%.
A large array of institutions is responsible for providing water and sanitation services: 10 regional water companies provide drinking water, 352 municipalities are in charge of sewers, and 21 water boards treat wastewater. Two Ministries share responsibility for policy-making in the sector. A large number of knowledge institutes, NGOs and two business associations – VEWIN representing the interests of the water companies and UVW representing the water boards - complete the institutional landscape of the sector.
An interesting feature of the Dutch water sector is a performance benchmarking system for water companies first introduced in 1997, which has inspired similar efforts in other European countries. The Dutch parliament passed a law in 2004 banning private sector provision of water supply. However, while the water companies themselves remain publicly owned, they contract many services - such as customer service and repairs - out to the private sector.
Access and service quality
The Dutch have universal access to the water supply and sanitation at very good quality. The drinking water network is in such good shape that treated water typically does not need to be chlorinated to prevent recontamination in the network, so that water reaches the consumer without a taste or smell of chlorine.
Water resources and water use
60% of Dutch drinking water comes from groundwater, mainly in the eastern part of the Netherlands. The remaining 40% comes from surface water, mainly in the West where water utilities pump from the Rhine and the Meuse because groundwater is brackish. The government encourages the use of surface water by charging a groundwater abstraction levy. Average municipal water use is among the lowest in developed countries at only 128 litres/person/day in 2004. 96% of water users are metered and a portion of their bill - typically about one half - is based on actual consumption.
Infrastructure and Human Resources
Infrastructure. There are 116,000 km of water pipes in the Netherlands.
Human Resources. The ten regional water companies had 4,938 full-time equivalent employees in 2008. This figures does not include private sector employees working for companies to which the water companies contract out services. They also do not include employees of municipalities working on sewerage. About 11,000 people work at water boards, an unknown share of which operate and maintain wastewater treatment plants.
History and recent events
Consolidation of water companies. In 1945 the Dutch water sector was highly fragmented with more than 200 water companies. Their number gradually declined to 10 five decades later. One reason was a transition from groundwater to surface water, and the need to construct capital-intensive and relatively complex treatment plants which required the cooperation of many municipalities. Another reason was that the national government encouraged the creation of larger public limited companies through a law enacted in 1975. However, since the 1990s consolidation has not been driven by the government, but rather by a desire of water companies themselves to reach economies of scale and to be "competitive" in a more liberalized European market.
Benchmarking. Since 1997 the Dutch water companies have engaged in a voluntary exercise to benchmark their performance against each other, in order to improve their efficiency and increase transparency. Initially, the benchmarking was undertaken to forestall a government proposal by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to establish a regulatory agency following the British model. Later on, when the regulatory agency did not materialize, benchmarking was pursued more and more for its intrinsic benefits. The Dutch benchmarking exercise covers four areas: water quality; service; environment; and finance and efficiency. The Dutch benchmarking program was the first nationwide benchmarking exercise in the water supply sector in continental Europe. Since then it has inspired similar water and sanitation benchmarking exercises in other European countries, including Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Germany. Most of these exercises are coordinated since 2004 in the North European Benchmarking Co-operation.
