Sweden

Sweden is the largest Nordic country located on the Scandinavian peninsula in northern Europe. It borders Norway to the north and west, Finland to the east, and Denmark to the southwest. It’s the fifth largest country in Europe, characterized by low population density and a high percentage of people living in urban areas (88%).

The country is divided into 21 counties (lan) and 290 municipalities (kommuner). Municipalities have a wide range of responsibilities and have strong independence in terms of providing public services, and deciding on income taxes and charges.

Source: World Bank Data Sweden 

Water and Wastewater Sector Structure

The provision of water and wastewater services in Sweden is the responsibility of municipalities. According to the Swedish constitution and relevant laws, municipalities have the freedom to decide how to arrange the provision of public services. Therefore, there are certain differences among municipalities on how water and wastewater services are organized and delivered, but they are commonly known as VA organizations (“Vatten och avlopp” water and sewage organizations).

Swedish VA organizations can have one of the following forms: be part of municipal administration, a separate municipal VA company, municipal multi-utility, regional company, municipal association, or inter-municipal VA organization.

Most municipalities (78%) manage water and wastewater services on their own, while 22% of them are organized in some kind of inter-municipal co-operating VA organization. However, the interest of municipalities in these multi-owned VA organizations is increasing due to the more efficient use of resources and other benefits that this form of structure entails.

Independently of the structure, VA organizations are municipally owned and, at the highest level, governed by a politically elected board. In terms of multi-owned VA organizations, their boards are composed of representatives from all co-owner municipalities which then decide on tariffs, operating budgets, and financing in general. VA organizations are nonprofit organizations – the provision of water and wastewater services cannot exceed the actual cost of providing these services, meaning that the tariffs are calculated based on the cost-price principle.  

In terms of access to public water supply and wastewater services, 89% and 88% of the population are connected to the networks, respectively. The rest are managed by smaller-scale systems due to their remoteness and distance from the network infrastructure.