Overview
- The estimate covers investments in maintenance, replacement and resilience across drinking water and wastewater systems over two decades.
- Between 10% and 15% of the total is tied to climate adaptation needs such as longer dry spells and more frequent heavy rainfall.
- The VKU warns that higher spending is likely to filter through to household water and wastewater charges over time.
- Many assets are approaching the end of their service life, with buried damage often going unnoticed until failures occur.
- VKU’s Hesse state group, representing 166 municipal companies, derived the figures from a study conducted for the association.