Abstract:

This paper builds on the author’s earlier work [31] and extends the integral indicator of innovative development for water and wastewater enterprises. The extension responds to three challenges now facing the sector: rapid digitalisation, the EU’s push towards climate neutrality and tighter regulation. The original seven-component model (resource, technological, personnel, effectiveness, institutional, social and ecological) is supplemented with 26 new indicators drawn from the IWA performance measurement framework, the European Benchmarking Co-operation and the OECD methodology for composite indicators. Among the additions are digital transformation metrics, energy and climate indicators (unit energy consumption, carbon footprint, energy self-sufficiency at treatment plants) and service quality metrics that can be measured directly (supply continuity, affordability, network coverage under SDG 6) — replacing health-based proxies whose link to any single utility is hard to establish. The paper also discusses the critical infrastructure status of water utilities and what it means under the NIS2 Directive and the revised EU wastewater directive (2024/3019), which requires treatment plants to reach energy neutrality by 2045.