Draft legislation that would place Hungary’s waterworks under local council or state ownership is not an affront to private or foreign owners, state secretary in charge of environmental affairs Zoltán Illés told public radio MR1 on Thursday.
“Whoever was granted a concession naturally has a signed contract, and that has an expiration date. But if the concession contract was signed for a period of 200 years or, let’s say, 30, the question could come up of how the company performed in light of requirements, for example from the point of view of environmental protection. And what if the question of accountability was forgotten till now? We will not forget,” Illés told the radio.
On Wednesday, Illés said the government wants to consolidate the country’s waterworks, reducing their number from 400 to around 30, and make them local council- or state-owned. Ministries are discussing the draft legislation on the matter, he said. The legislation could be approved soon by the government and could come before Parliament before the end of the current session in June, he added.
Charges for the services waterworks provide are not expected to rise as a result of the change of ownership as the aim will not be to take out “extra profit” as it is with private companies, he said. Under the draft legislation, prices for a cubic meter of water would be set in a range. At present they vary between HUF 180 and HUF 2,000.
Illés estimated the value of Hungary’s waterworks to be HUF 1,000 billion but said an inventory of the utilities would be ordered in days.
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