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/en/natur-og-miljo/statistikker/avlok/aar
10956_om
statistikk
2002-11-21T10:00:00.000Z
Nature and the environment
en
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Municipal waste water, economic data2001

Content

About the statistics

Definitions

Name and topic

Name: Municipal waste water, economic data
Topic: Nature and the environment

Responsible division

Division for Environmental Statistics

Definitions of the main concepts and variables

Subscriber is defined as three person units. One person unit equals the average waste water from one person. Waste water from industry is calculated in person units as well.

Net investment is defined as gross investment, deducting grants, investments financed by previous surplus in the waste water treatment sector, or costs covered in another way.

Annual costs are the total of maintenance, running and overhead costs and capital costs. When calculating capital costs, the time period used is 20 years. The interest rent in 1999 was 6.87 per cent, including a one per cent risk premium. For depreciation of investments, we have used the progressive method (annuity method) recommended by the Norwegian Pollution Authorities and the Ministry of the Environment. The municipalities have the possibility to choose several other calculation methods.

Income is raised through the collection of connecting fees and annual fees. The connecting fee is a one-time fee, whereas the annual fee is paid on an annual basis.

Income-to-cost ratio shows the extent that the municipalities' costs are covered by the fee income. The municipalities do not have the right to collect more fee income than total costs, but they do not have to cover all expenses by fees.

Subscriber average is calculated on the basis of the number of subscribers in a municipality. A large municipality will then weight more than a small one.

Standard classifications

Not relevant

Administrative information

Regional level

Municipality, county and national figures. County figures are also aggregated for the group of North Sea counties and the rest of the counties in Norway.

Frequency and timeliness

Annual

International reporting

Not relevant

Microdata

Not relevant

Background

Background and purpose

Statistics Norway (SSB) and The Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT) co-operate regarding the yearly statistics on the municipal waste water sector. The statistics are based on reported data from the Regional Environmental Authorities. The statistics were for the first time produced in 1994, for the year 1993. The statistics on economic and physical data in the wastewater sector were integrated from 1997.

Users and applications

The waste water treatment data are used by the authorities as a means to evaluate the need for remedial actions and to document the implementation of international environmental obligations. The data are also used to check that the municipalities do not have a higher income for this sector than their total costs, over a maximum period of five years.

The regional and municipal data provide counties and municipalities with information about local status and development and can be useful for considering local remedial actions concerning emissions from this sector.

Important users are: The Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT), Ministry of the Environment, Regional Environmental Authorities, municipalities, non-government organisations, the media and research institutions.

Coherence with other statistics

Not relevant

Legal authority

The Pollution Control Law.

EEA reference

Not relevant

Production

Population

All municipalities report on an annual basis. The reporting is once a year, and the 15th of March is the reporting deadline.

Data sources and sampling

Since 1998 the reporting has been via SFT's SESAM-database (System for effective handling of administrative procedures at the Regional Environmental Authorities). The SESAM-base is the source of SSB's statistics for the waste water treatment sector.

At the present time, the reporting of economic data for the wastewater sector is changing. From 2002 the municipalities will report the economic data through the KOSTRA-system (Municipal-State reporting system). Some municipalities already report these data through a pilot project.

All municipalities should report on an annual basis.

Collection of data, editing and estimations

The Regional Environmental Authorities distribute electronic questionnaires by the beginning of the year. The final date for the municipalities' reporting is the 15th of March. In 2000 a large number of municipalities had still not reported by this date. The Regional Environmental Authorities operate in different ways regarding how often they send reminders to the municipalities and to what extent they use pollution fees as incentives for reporting.

SSB has the possibility of downloading data from the SESAM-database. Data are exported to Excel-worksheets, and transferred to SSBs own waste water-database.

Comparison between the last two years' data reveals any large departures from last year's reporting. This control is done twice. The first time is when the Regional Environmental Authorities receive the data from the municipalities. When the data are read into the SESAM-base, there is an automatic message that appears on the computer's screen if the difference from the previous year's reporting exceeds 20 per cent. Because this happens frequently, the messages are often ignored. When the SSB receives the data, there is a more refined control of the differences from the previous year's data.

Since 1997, any lack in reporting on investment, costs, income, subscribers or fees have been compensated by estimated values. Investments have been estimated as an average of the last 3-5 years, depending on data availability. The rest of the figures are estimated from the previous year's reporting, or the last year the municipality reported.

Confidentiality

Not relevant

Comparability over time and space

We have complete economic statistics for the seven years that waste water statistics has been produced. The 1997-reporting was, however, of less quality than other years, because of the introduction of a new reporting system (SESAM) this year.

Accuracy and reliability

Sources of error and uncertainty

When entering data, human errors can happen. Some of these errors are discovered because the numbers are too large or too small. But smaller errors are not necessarily discovered.

Some of the data reported are quite uncertain. This applies especially to administration (or overhead) costs. In the municipal accounts, all administration costs are reported under a common administration account. It can therefore be difficult for the municipalities to separate the part that should be charged to the waste water sector. Therefore there is some uncertainty connected to the quality of these figures. The same applies for the data for number of subscribers and industry.

Expected number of new subscribers and planned investments are often not reported by the municipalities. After another request for there figures, the municipalities often come up with some figures based on estimates, even though one could expect that there are official figures in the municipalities' plans and budgets.