About the project
Improving sewage sludge management and data collection through an e-solution
To address the issues related to sewage sludge management, a system is being developed that will manage and exchange information about the sewage sludge from on-site treatment systems. Currently, only data on the volume of sewage discharged to sewage treatment plants is available, but there is no comprehensive solution for exchanging information on sewage removal.
The goal of the new solution is to create a transparent, efficient, and user-friendly system that reduces time spent by stakeholders, simplifies service ordering, and improves collaboration. The system will also take into account the business processes of companies, avoiding unnecessary work and creating new opportunities for service delivery.
The e-solution aims to ensure the exchange of information on the removal of sewage sludge collected from on-site treatment systems between the system owner or manager, the sewage removal service provider, the water company, the local government, and the state. The implemented solution will provide an overview of the locations of the sewage treatment systems, the requirements for sludge disposal, whether the sewage removal service covers all treatment systems, where the sewage is brought to the disposal site, and what quantities and types of sludge are being pumped.
As a result of the solution, the sewage removal process will become more transparent and traceable. The public will gain access to reliable data that has not been available before. Local governments will obtain the necessary data for investment planning to ensure a sufficient network of sewage treatment plants and the capacity to treat sewage.
Better opportunities will be created for sludge removers to provide fair and transparent services, promoting competition. Water companies will be assured that the sewage collected from the treatment systems reaches the disposal sites, enabling them to manage and plan sewage reception and treatment plant operations more effectively.
Definitions
Sewage – water generated from household, industrial, or other production processes that exceeds the established discharge limits and needs to be treated before being released into water bodies.
Sewage treatment facility – a technological facility used at the point of sewage generation to collect, treat, infiltrate into the ground, or release into a water body (e.g., sewage collection tank, septic tank, or dry toilet collection tank).
Sludge removal service – the service of pumping, removing, and treating sewage from on-site sewage treatment facilities.
More information
Development of the sludge disposal e-platform | Environmental Investment Centre (kik.ee)
Water Management Plans
Due to the reform of the water management plan implementation process, a preliminary study was conducted in the fall of 2023 to assess whether and how it would be possible to transition the organization of water management plan preparation and implementation to a real-time management basis. This is because several of the measures being implemented rely on data from the implementers. The preliminary study was commissioned from Skroot OÜ. The results can be found in the materials section.
For more details on water management plans, visit the topic page on the Environmental Portal.
For inquiries regarding water management plans, please contact Timo Torp from the Environmental Agency at @email.
Finished projects
- Annual water usage report
-
The need to optimize reporting obligations for water companies
In Estonia, there are more than 100 water companies that supply the population with clean drinking water and wastewater services. All water companies are required by the Water Act (VeeS) § 187 to apply for a special environmental permit for water use from the state and to operate according to the conditions of the permit. Environmental permits also define the reporting obligations for water companies. Water companies are required to regularly submit monitoring reports, including laboratory measurements of water quality, quarterly environmental fee declarations, and annual reports. Depending on the number of service areas, a water company may have multiple environmental permits, and each permit requires an annual report, meaning that a single water company may need to submit dozens of annual water usage reports each year.
The reporting burden on water companies is significant, but the state needs this data. The data collected from water companies provides an overview of the status of clean water as a resource and a vital part of the natural environment. Additionally, Estonia reports the data received from water companies to various international organizations. Water usage data is necessary for the state's functioning, and therefore, water usage reporting is unavoidable. However, the large reporting burden causes issues with both time and resource management, as well as data quality. When a company must manually fill in many data fields, errors inevitably occur, and identifying and correcting these errors takes time, impacting both the accuracy and timeliness of the data.
Real-time economy and data-based reporting to the rescue
The transition to a real-time economy and data-based reporting would significantly improve the situation, reducing the reporting burden on water companies while simultaneously improving data quality. In late 2021, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of the Environment signed a cooperation agreement aimed at supporting the transition to data-based reporting by 2025. As part of this cooperation agreement, in 2022, the Environmental Board launched the project "Pilot of the Data-Based Reporting Model for Water Companies" (hereinafter: the data-based water reporting project). The goal of the project was to analyze the automation possibilities for water companies' reporting obligations and to create a prototype of a data-based reporting solution that would reduce the administrative burden of report preparation and data submission for water companies.
Project timeline
The project began in early 2022 with mapping the current situation, including stakeholders and reporting-related processes and problems. Interviews were conducted with 15 water companies and several public sector agencies, and existing materials were reviewed. Attempts were made to map data-based water reporting practices in neighboring countries, but examples of such systems could not be found. Additionally, participation in the BaltAqua cooperation network, aimed at increasing cooperation between Germany and the Baltic States in the water sector, revealed that the level of systematization and digitalization in water management in Estonia is already higher than in neighboring countries. Therefore, Estonia has the opportunity to be a pioneer in water management digitalization and data-based water reporting.
In the third quarter of 2022, a working group on water reporting was established with the goal of developing requirements for the water reporting data analytics dashboard. Simultaneously, similar work was conducted within the data-based waste reporting project. In the waste sector, there was a clear need for comprehensive dashboards that would provide views for officials, local governments, and citizens. However, in the water sector, it became clear that there was no critical need for such a dashboard within the context of data-based reporting. Nevertheless, user requirements for the data-based water reporting system were documented in the working group, outlining how data-based water reporting and its additional functions could work from the perspective of various users. While the water reporting data analytics dashboard would be nice to have, for the realization of data-based water reporting, it is essential to remove so-called permanent data (data that changes very rarely) from regular water reporting. One possible solution for this could be the planned development of a facility registry.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, a terms of reference was completed, and a small procurement was carried out for the work "Analysis: opportunities for automating the submission of self-monitoring data." The procurement was won by Trinidad Wiseman OÜ, and the work was completed in the first quarter of 2023. The objective of the work was to find ways to simplify and automate the exchange and submission of self-monitoring water data to the state. The conclusion of the work was that the technical capabilities of stakeholders vary greatly, and transitioning to machine-to-machine data exchange across the sector is not possible in the near future. However, several proposals were made on how the submission of self-monitoring data could already be simplified and automated.
In the spring of 2023, the terms of reference for the next and larger analysis, "Data-based reporting in the water sector: business and pre-analysis and prototype creation," was completed. The relevant public procurement was published in the State Support Services Environment on May 23, with the deadline for submitting proposals on June 16. This procurement was also won by Trinidad Wiseman OÜ, and the work was carried out in the third and fourth quarters of 2023. The work mapped the current situation of water usage reporting, designed the future vision for the transition to data-based reporting, and created a software prototype to test the concept of data-based water reporting based on machine interfaces. The analysis confirmed once again that the management style and technological capabilities of water companies vary significantly, and this prevents a full transition to data-based reporting by 2025 or likely even by 2027. However, potential solutions to overcome these obstacles were proposed. The results of the work were publicly presented in January 2024. The results of the analysis will serve as the basis for planning further actions for the transition to data-based reporting in the water sector.
In parallel with other activities, the standardization of water reporting taxonomy has been developed and updated in collaboration with the cross-governmental taxonomy working group led by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
No new operational services were developed within this project, as it was a research and development project aimed at creating new knowledge. However, the results of the project can serve as the basis for planning further specific changes and developments.
The project was led by the Environmental Board, with partners including the Environmental Agency, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, and the Climate Technology Centre. Active cooperation also took place with many water companies, laboratories, and several other state agencies (including Statistics Estonia, the Health Board, the Competition Authority, the Agricultural Registers and Information Board, and others). The project's budget was 202,460 €.
Contact: Triin Mägi, Head of the Water department at the Environmental Board (@email; +372 5691 6554)
If you would like more information or have any questions, please contact the head of the Water department at the Environmental Board, the project manager at the Environmental Investment Centre, or the contact person for the water management plans.