Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive

The urban waste water treatment directive was adopted in 1991. The objective of this directive is to ‘protect the environment from adverse effects of waste water discharges from urban sources and specific industries’. The European Commission conducted an evaluation of the directive in 2019. This evaluation confirmed that the implementation of the directive has led to a significant reduction in pollutant releases. However, the evaluation showed that there are still sources of pollution that are not yet adequately addressed by the current rules. The European Parliament approved the text of the recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive on 10 April 2024.

The updates of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive cover especially the scope of waste water treatment: the obligation thresholds of secondary, tertiary and quaternary treatment were lowered to cover smaller agglomerations than before, and timelines for implementation of new requirements were set. Further, the update of the directive underlines the financial responsibility of pollution producers. Finally, the update pertains to the energy efficiency of the waste water treatment plants and their use of renewable energy sources.