Water supply and sanitation in the Netherlands is provided in good quality and at a reasonable price to the entire population.
The Dutch parliament passed a law in 2004 banning private sector provision of water supply.
96% of water users are metered and a portion of their bill - typically about one half - is based on actual consumption.
About 11,000 people work at water boards, an unknown share of which operate and maintain wastewater treatment plants.
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.
[5] 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.
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.
The Dutch benchmarking exercise covers four areas: water quality; service; environment; and finance and efficiency.
[6] Since then it has inspired similar water and sanitation benchmarking exercises in other European countries, including Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Germany.
In 2004 the Netherlands passed a law which prevents any privately owned company from providing drinking water services to the public.
The law is a follow-up to a 1997 government paper, which made clear that water supply concessions would only be given to government-owned companies.
The bill only covers drinking water provision to households, not sewerage and wastewater treatment.
Responsibilities in the Dutch drinking water and sanitation sector are spread over a number of institutions at different levels of regional aggregation and with specific functions.
At the national level two Ministries share responsibility for the sector, and there is no autonomous regulatory agency as it is the case in England, states of the US or Portugal.
The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (called VROM, using its Dutch acronym) is in charge of water supply and regulates public health.
The Ministry's Inspectorate for Transport, Public Works and Water Management is in charge of monitoring compliance with regulations.
[10] According to the Netherlands Water Information Network, the Netherlands has "developed a coherent knowledge infrastructure in the water sector, comprising government and private research centres, technological and educational institutes (such as Alterra, UNESCO-IHE, ITC, Deltares) and several universities".
These institutes carry out a broad range of basic and applied research, from hydraulic engineering to integrated water management.
This includes €0.20/m3 of tap water tax and VAT, provincial groundwater levies, distribution and concession reimbursements.
Tariffs can vary within the service area of a water company, depending on local costs.
Companies and organizations pay a rate linked to the quantity and composition of their waste water.