ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This report was prepared by a core team of World Bank staff and consultants led by Patricia Lopez and comprised of Elvira Broeks Motta and Maria Salvetti. Supporting data and analysis were prepared by Michael Klien (WUPI and WASCO) and by Gabriela Mundaca (Cost Efficiency of Water utilities).
The report also draws extensively on other recent World Bank research and analytical work carried out in the past three years by different World Bank teams led by authors Susanna Smets and Stjepan Gabric, as a direct response to the knowledge gaps identified in the first edition of the State of the Sector Report in 2015.
The data collection, consolidation and validation was commissioned by the World Bank to a team of the Umweltbundesamt in Vienna, Austrian Environmental Agency (Peggy Macaigne, Klara Toth, Bogdanka Radetic, Katharina Lenz and Alexander Zinke) who relied on individual consultants in each of the analyzed countries (Albania: Semira Kasimati Vathi; Austria: Andreas Riha/Austrian Association of Gas and Water; BiH: Nebojša Budović and Dalibor Vrhovac; Bulgaria: Dochka Angelova Velkova/Sofia Consulting Group; Czech Republic: Veronika Jáglová/ VRV company; Croatia: Igor Ljubenkov; Hungary: Gabor Kisvardai; Kosovo: Lavdim Osmanaj; Macedonia: Jane Vrteski; Moldova: Veaceslav Vladicescu; Montenegro: Milica Vukčević; Romania: Catalin Curea; Serbia: Ninoslav Petrović; Slovakia: Veronika Jáglová; Slovenia: Urška Kušar and Ukraine: Viktoria Iskova). The editing of this report was facilitated by Erin Ann Barret and Pascal Saura, with input from Martin Craig Hall. The report was formatted and produced by Miodrag Veselinović.
The authors welcome comments and can be contacted through Patricia Lopez (plopez@worldbank.org).
The team would like to thank reviewers Caroline van den Berg, Gerhard Soppe, Philip Weller, Simon Ellis and David Malcolm Lord, as well as Maryam Sherman, David Michaud, Stjepan Gabric, Susanna Smets, Alexandru Cosmin Buteica, Igor Palandzic, Ivaylo Hristov Kolev, Andrea Liverani, Anthony A. Gaetta, Baher El-Hifnawi, Steven Schonberger, Jennifer Sara, Arup Banerji, Martin Craig Hall, Carolina Delgadillo, Bernarda Erazo, and the staff and management of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy in Albania, the Albanian Regulatory Authority of the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector (ERRU), Aquasan network in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority, the Kosovo Water and Wastewater Regulatory Office and many other individuals and institutions throughout the region for their helpful comments and feedback during the preparation of this report.
The Danube Water Program in brief
The Danube Water Program supports policy dialogue and capacity development to achieve smart policies, strong utilities, and sustainable services in the water supply and wastewater sector of the Danube region. The program started a new third phase in January 2019 which includes a new component focusing on Water Security. The program is run in partnership with the World Bank and the International Association of Water Service Companies in the Danube River Catchment Area (IAWD), with financing from the Government of Austria.
See www.danube-water-program.org for more details.
This report is a product of the World Bank under the Danube Water Program (www.danube-water-program.org) financed by the Austrian Government. Its contribution is gratefully acknowledged.
All material is available electronically at sos2018.DANUBIS.org and at the Danube Water Program’s website (www.danube-water-program.org). Further resources on water and wastewater services, utilities, and policies in the Danube Region are available under DANUBIS.org
