Municipal water supply - KOSTRA
Municipal-State-Reporting (KOSTRA) key figures are published annually on the 15th of Mars (unrevised figures) and 15th of June (revised figures).
The figures are published on both national and regional (municipal and county) levels. In addition, municipalities are grouped in economically comparable groups (see chapter 4.2).
220 - Division for Environmental Statistics
The data from municipal waterworks are collected with legal basis in The Regulation on Drinking Water (in Norwegian only).
Data on costs and fees are collected with legal basis in the Regulation on Reporting from Local Government (in Norwegian only).
Statistics Norway can make use of the collected data for official statistical purposes with legal basis in the Statistics Act
Council Directive 98/83/EC on the quality of water intended for human consumption.
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KOSTRA started up as a project in 1995 with the intention to provide relevant and up-to-date information about allocation of resources, priorities and meeting targets in municipalities and counties. The goal is to collect data in a co-ordinated way, and make the information flow a one time delivery per year for all steering-information needed by municipality. The number of municipalities and counties was gradually increased until the reporting year of 2001, and then all municipalities were included in the KOSTRA.
The key figures on municipal waterworks gives an overview on share of population supplied, basic facts on the pipelines (length, age, rate of renewal), number of booster pumps, water consumption, reliability in delivery, population provided with disinfected water, population provided with hygienically safe water, contribution margin ratio, full cost ratio, fee calculation basis and capital costs etc.
KOSTRA provide steering information about municipalities and counties to the different interest groups, inhabitants, media, the municipality itself, different state organs and controlling authorities etc.
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Data is collected electronically once every year, and the information should be available for Statistics Norway and The National Institute of Public Health by 15th of February.
The electronic forms contain built-in consistency checks and logical tests. After arrival data are checked automatically and manually.
Unrevised data will be published on 15th of Mars. There is a second deadline on the 15th of April for municipalities to correct possible errors in the figures just published. The data reported after first deadline is also revised by Statistics Norway and The National Institute of Public Health.
Data are being published on different levels, as basic data and key figures. Basic data is generally reported in absolute numbers, and will largely constitute aggregated numbers summed up for a certain period of time or at a time of year. Key figures, on the other hand, are commonly a ratio (made up of different basic data). Key figures also contain various averages e.g. on municipal groups, the county level and the national level. A weighted average has been applied for most of the key figures. Absolute key figures are presented as arithmetic average. Yes and no key figures have no averages. National averages are provided with and without Oslo (the capital). The data for Oslo is not always comparable with other municipalities.
The reporting from municipal waterworks has to cover 95 per cent or more of the total population supplied in a given municipality. If not, the municipality is excluded from the calculations of KOSTRA key figures.
Calculations of the age of municipal wastewater pipelines on country level in the article - Todays Statistics - has been adjusted for pipelines of unknown age (not specified time period). Pipelines in these cases has been spread accordingly over the following time periods: (1) before 1910, (2) 1910-40, (3) 1941-70 and (4) 1971-2000 and (5) 2001 or later. These corrections constitute a few small exemptions, while the age figures in Statbank has not been corrected in this way (based solely on this years reporting and on the part of the pipelines which can be pinned down to one specific time period).
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Booster pumps are installed on the pipelines to pump water to locations at higher altitude than the water source, and in general to keep the pressure at the right level. This is important in order to avoid damages to the pipelines and contaminations.
Capital costs consists of the following two costs: Depreciation of earlier annual investments and a calculated interest cost for capital goods. Both depreciation costs and calculated interest cost are derived from KOSTRA-form number 23.
Coloured water often occurs due to natural organic components (humus content). The humus components are not necessarily harmful on their own, but may create suitable conditions for undesirable bacterial growth. Humus may also combine with other contaminations.
Cost coverage refers to, in percent, how big a share of the annual water supply related costs the municipalities actually cover by water fees. Municipalities are not entitled to claim more than actual costs, neither are they obliged to claim full cost coverage.
Delivery failure includes both intended and unintended stops in the water supply.
E. coli is a bacteria used as indicator for possible faecal contamination.
Full cost ratio = ((Fee income) / (Fee calculation basis + Allocations - Use of funds)) x 100
Municipal waterworks are waterworks owned by the municipalities. Waterworks established as limited companies with more than 50 percent municipal ownership are included.
Number of inhabitants connected is estimated from total number of inhabitants in combination with information about the extensiveness of the water pipelines.
Operating costs constitutes the sum of administrative-, management- and maintenance costs. Figures are reported through The Municipal-State-Reporting system (KOSTRA), on form no. 23.
pH is a measure for water acidity. Water with a high acidic content has a corroding effect on the pipelines, which may cause release of heavy metals to the water.
Water fees consist of a connection fee and a fixed annual fee. The connection fee is collected once only - during installation. Figures are reported through The Municipal-State-Reporting system (KOSTRA), on form number 22.
Water use covers the consumption of water within the area covered by the distribution system of a waterworks. The consumption is distributed by sector/industry, estimated from the amount of water abstracted from the source and the amount of water used in treatment operations. Water use in households consists of all water used in households, holiday homes, institutions and the like. Water use for other purposes includes, among others, water to livestock and irrigation.
The term Waterworks applies to the administration of the water supply services, including water source (basin) water treatment facility and/or distribution system (pipelines).
Waterworks have to be approved by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority when they supply:
The 431 municipalities are grouped according to population and economic comparable groups. This is based on the report (in Norwegian only): Gruppering av kommunar etter folkemengde og økonomiske rammevilkår 2003. Rapport 2006/8, Statistisk sentralbyrå.
The error-controls built in the electronic forms and at forms-delivery provide an automatic feedback to the reporting municipality or waterworks. Experiences show that this reduces the level of errors compared to the earlier paper forms. The controls identify the most common errors, such as decimal-errors, other abnormal figures or missing figures. These kinds of errors are not expected to have a significant effect on the statistics.
As for data from the waterworks, most uncertainty is expected to occur in the figures on distribution of consumption (in various sectors/industries). The consumption is estimated, not gauged.
Non-response from an entire waterworks, or on specific parameters, can lead to uncertainty in the final statistics. Therefore, continuous effort is put into contacting waterworks in order to get data or to verify that the waterworks in question has been shut down. Lately, the non-response rate has gradually improved. In cases of non-response, it is necessary to correct for the missing data in the calculation of key figures.
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Errors may arise during the revision process. Revision is a necessary quality-assuring tool, but errors and uncertainty may also arise under the process. In particular, this applies to instances where previously reported material is used as substitute for non-responses in the current year, but also other alterations to the material during the process.
For some years the comparability is limited.
Municipal waste water treatment KOSTRA, municipal wastewater sector
See key figures and basic data at Statbank
Reports on water are available from Statistic Norway's Internet homepage: http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/01/04/20/
Report from the National Institute of Public Health (in Norwegian - English summary): Report from the Waterwork registry, Status for drinking water (data 2005 and 2006)
The National Institute of Public Health receives the reporting and provides the dataset for the KOSTRA key figures. Revised data sets are also saved at Statistics Norway.
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