ARA submitted its official contribution to the European consultation on the digitization of the water sector
The Romanian Water Association submitted, via the European Commission’s “Have Your Say” portal, its contribution to the public consultation on the future EU Action Plan for the Digitalization of the Water Sector (Initiative 17013, part of the European Strategy for Water Resilience). In its submission, the ARA welcomes the Commission’s initiative and emphasizes a message of operational realism: digital technologies—artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), smart metering, and Earth observation—will only have a significant impact if the Action Plan is accompanied by predictable funding for digital projects (not just civil infrastructure), interoperable data and reporting, and a regulatory framework that allows for recovering the costs of digitization. The contribution highlights the structural realities of the sector (high levels of non-revenue water, partial implementation of smart metering, fragmentation of data systems) and makes six recommendations to the Commission, including a dedicated EU funding stream for digitization (including software, data, skills, and cybersecurity), recognition of digitization costs in tariff methodologies, interoperable “once-only” reporting across obligations under the relevant directives (drinking water, urban wastewater, the Water Framework Directive, the Energy Community Regulation, and NIS2), and a skills development program
