IV. ACCESS TO SERVICES

60. Access to water and sanitation services in the Danube region is high compared to the rest of the world. The collection and treatment of wastewater is lagging behind the generally high access to piped water and private flush toilets, especially with respect to EU standards that most countries in the Danube watershed aim to comply with. However, when computing access by lower-income or minority groups or across subnational regions, service gaps become visible that would need to be addressed through targeted policies or investments.

61. This chapter provides an overview of the access situation in all countries. The statistics are estimated from household survey data and have been compared with similar statistics reported by the Joint Monitoring Program, a WHO/UNICEF-managed database with statistics on water and sanitation access. Apart from national household surveys, the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) was applied where national budget survey data were not available.

62. Estimating the statistics outlined in this section from the original surveys, whether national or EU-SILC, provides an opportunity to compute access by different income groups, ethnicity, and region, which is not otherwise available. Methodological Note A at the end of this document lists the different surveys, the variables informing income, and the questions posed in the surveys to estimate access to services.