Poland’s total renewable water resources are very low. That was the main reason why NIK President Marian Banaś decided to participate in the cooperative audit concerning this area. Another reason was the results of an audit from 2021 which revealed irregularities in the management of water resources, water supply networks and wastewater.
The rationale for undertaking the cooperative audit included the UN assessments indicating as follows:
- 3 in 10 inhabitants of our planet lack access to safe sources of drinking water, 6 in 10 do not have access to sanitation services,
- for more than 40% of the population, the problem of water scarcity is urgent,
- according to forecasts, at the current development rate, as many as 1.6 billion people will not have access to safe drinking water by 2030;
- 2.8 billion people will be deprived of safe sanitation,
- 1.9 billion people will be deprived of basic hand hygiene.
To provide drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030, the current pace of progress would need to be quadrupled.
In parallel, the SAIs of five countries carried out audits of the implementation of Goal 6.1 of the Sustainable Development Agenda: by 2030 achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all and Goal 6.3: Improve water quality. According to the SDG 6.3, in order to improve water quality by 2030 the following measures should be taken:
- reduce pollution,
- eliminate dumping,
- minimise release of hazardous chemicals and materials,
- halve the proportion of untreated wastewater,
- increase the amount of appropriately treated grey water recovered for reuse.
The cooperative audit was aimed, among other things, at assessing activities of the administration responsible for providing clean drinking water to residents and for improving the quality of water supplied. During the cooperative audit, the SAIs analysed the findings of national audits, including good practices they found in the area of sustainable management of water resources as well as wastewater collection and treatment. Based on the results of national audits, in November 2024 the final cooperative audit report was prepared. The audit was coordinated by the Hungarian SAI.
NIK's contribution to the cooperative audit was two audit reports: Collection and treatment of municipal wastewater and Water resources management by water supply companies in rural municipalities.
The audit findings show that implementing SDGs 6.1 and 6.3 in the participating countries was hindered by the lack of overall coordination at the strategic level and the absence of integrated databases supporting decision-making processes.
Effective integrated planning was missing, and so was the implementation of specific objectives and targets. As a result, water and wastewater management tasks were not properly coordinated, resources were wasted and activities were not prioritised correctly.
Besides, there were no mechanisms for systematic monitoring and reporting which caused stagnation and low efficiency of water and wastewater management processes. No monitoring of the network was carried out and comprehensive data was missing, e.g. there was no documentation of the technical state of water supply networks or analyses of the network maintenance needs.
Moreover, the data on water losses against the volume of utility water introduced into the network was not in place. One of the reasons for water losses was the worsening technical condition of an obsolete water supply infrastructure and the lack of essential repairs. The cooperative audit found that the access to safe and healthy drinking water gradually improved or did not change significantly.
Some progress was also noted in the area of wastewater management but it was not sufficient everywhere, in the light of national and European requirements. While some countries have taken more effective wastewater treatment efforts, water quality in water bodies has not always improved significantly in recent years. The reason was the biological and chemical limits of pollutants set out in the Water Framework Directive were difficult to meet.
The findings of wastewater management audits are particularly important due to the changed lists of pollutants and the deadlines for implementing individual stages of the revised Water Framework Directive, which has come into effect in 2025: Council agrees negotiating mandate to update list of pollutants
