The Water Services Regulatory Authority of Kosovo (ARRU)
The Regulator – The Water Services Regulatory Authority of Kosovo (ARRU)
ARRU is an independent Regulatory Authority established in 2004 that employs ~21 people with an annual budget of 348.000 €. Under Law No. 05/L -042, ARRU answers to the Assembly of Kosovo.
You can find this data and the country profiles of all the 25 WAREG Members in our Water Governance Report (2021).
As the Regulatory Authority for water, ARRU’s main responsibilities are:
- licensing of service providers and overseeing the implementation of the terms set forth by the service license;
- the setting of service tariffs for service providers, ensuring that tariffs are fair and reasonable and enable financial sustainability of service providers;
- establishing service standards and overseeing implementation by service providers of these standards;
- monitoring the performance of service providers to assess whether they meet the conditions set by the service license as well as targets set by the tariff process;
- resolving customer complaints in the second instance of administrative procedure;
- drafting and adopting regulations, standards and regulatory decisions; and
- Inspecting service standards and oversight of the implementation of legal acts of the authority.
Legal Framework
The main legislations on the water sector of Kosovo are the following:
- Law No. 04/L-147 on Water of Kosovo;
- Law No. 03/L-087 on Publicly Owned Enterprises;
- Law No. 05/L-042 for Regulation of Water Services;
- Water Drinking Quality Administrative Instruction 16/2012.
Institutional Framework
The water sector in Kosovo is managed at the National and Regional levels.
The Inter-ministerial Water Council reviews the systematic issues of water management and harmonisation of different needs and interests. It proposes measures for the development, utilisation, and protection of Kosovo resources and water systems.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment (MIE) is responsible for water sources and issues water permits for water abstraction and wastewater discharge for RWC-s.
The Ministry of Economy (ME), on behalf of the Government, represents the ownership of public regional water companies.
The Water Service Regulatory Authority is responsible for the economic regulation of licenced water service providers.
The Ministry of Health is responsible for monitoring water quality.
Regional Water Companies are (7) public companies responsible for providing water services.
Country profile
- Area: 10.908 Km2
- Population: 1,7 million
- Population density: 155,8 inh/Km2
- GDP per capita: 4,508.93 ( Current US$ 2019)
- Water and sanitation services (2020)
- Number of operators of drinking water and/or sanitation services: 7
- Percentage of households served: 78% (population covered with water services managed by licensed providers
- Abstracted water volume: 152 271 130 m3 (treated water volume)
- Wastewater volume collected: 48 923 782 m3
- Average per capita consumption: 132 l/day/person
- Sector Turnover: 36 206 326€
- Average service price by m3: The average volumetric tariff for water and wastewater services for domestic customers is 0.43 €/m3, whereas for non-household customers tariff is 0.76 €/m3.
Who approves tariffs?
Tariffs are set by ARRU, the Water Regulator of Kosovo.
What is the methodology used to set tariffs?
Tariffs are set to ensure that the RWCs are able to finance their activities in accordance with their prescribed standards of service and/or agreed levels of service plus a ‘fair’ return on capital for the money that they have invested. Consequently, the tariff is defined by a revenue requirement that satisfies the above condition divided by the volume of water sold (adjusted for revenue collection efficiency). The revenue requirement is made up of three principal components:
- Operating costs,
- Capital maintenance
- Return on Regulatory Asset Base.
The tariff system for water and wastewater services evaluates the applications of RWCs in this sector for a three-year periodic tariff setting.