Wastewater ecotaxes and reuse in Spain

Resumen

Directives 91/271/EEC and 2000/60/EC establish member States must take into account the principle of cost recovery in water-related services. This premise has justified the creation and implementation of ecological taxes linked to wastewater in the different European countries, whose purpose is to influence the actions of polluters and to provide competent bodies with sufficient resources to cover actions that reduce contamination of discharged wastewater. The objective of this Doctoral Thesis is to verify if the income derived from the taxes on wastewater in Spain allow to cover the costs of exploitation, maintenance and investment of the purification facilities and contribute to promote the reuse. In addition, a comparative analysis is carried out on the tax burden on wastewater in EU countries and its determining factors.