An extraordinary session of the House of Representatives of Slovenia was called to urgently approve two laws before the start of the regular session on Monday. One concerns the supply of drinking water to the population. Slovenia is one of the few countries in the world to have enshrined the right to water in its constitution, but there is no specific legislation. The Law on Drinking Water Supply regulates the constitutional right to water and prohibits the management of the supply through profit-making concessions. This autumn marks nine years since the right to drinking water was enshrined in the Slovenian constitution. However, the deadline for adapting the legislation expired in 2018 and now, due to obligations under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the new law must be adopted by the end of March.
The legislation stipulates that all drinking water concessions granted to private companies will be revoked within five years. During this period, municipalities that have granted such concessions will have to find appropriate solutions, set up public companies where none exist, or manage the water service themselves.
In Slovenia, the drinking water supply is managed not only by public and private companies, but also by water cooperatives and private aqueducts, according to the National Chamber of Municipal Services, so a solution will also have to be found for these private entities that supply water to the population, they pointed out.
The law itself will not change the way water is supplied, nor will it lead to price increases. An important new feature of the bill is that water can no longer be cut off for non-payment, but only in cases where the user is genuinely unable to pay, and not simply because he or she refuses to pay.
