International scientific literature and research results demonstrate a deep and wide gap in the water value. Facilities related to water and sewerage networks providing urban water utility services are more expensive than any other public service infrastructure. Yet, the tariffs on water and sewerage services are the lowest among household expenditures. While in developing countries it is the lack of infrastructure, in the developed world the replacement of assets, often aged 100 years and over, presents increasingly pressing, still unresolved problems put off for decades. The cost requirements of water supply and the underlying infrastructure show marked differences along a different social stratification. The smaller the unit of supply, the size of the settlement, the higher the per capita infrastructure and service costs are, at the same time this is where disposable incomes are the lowest. The basis for my research was a nationwide water utility asset valuation and a representative survey of the social water value mindset. Results revealed in the study were built on the one hand, on the asset valuation database generated by settlement, at an object level, based on replacement values adjusted by obsolescence. This database encompasses nearly a quarter of all Hungarian settlements, reflecting the size distribution of settlements in Hungary in a representative manner. The survey of the water value mindset of society was carried out using a 5000-strong nationwide representative sample.
I concluded that per capita replacement costs of water utility infrastructure in smaller settlements are several times higher than those payable by inhabitants of larger settlements and although service charges are only slightly higher, they do not nearly cover additional costs. Per capita replacement needs correlate with per capita pipe length, which are 5 times higher in small settlements than in larger ones. The situation of asset management is further exacerbated by the fact that the distribution over time of replacement needs of drinking water supply systems is concentrated over the next 15 years for a wide range of settlement groups, at the same time, replacement needs manifest in some given year at the level of the individual settlements, amount to 20-30-40 times the 50-year average value.
Social groups living in small and large settlements are aware of the substantial differences in communal water and sewerage service costs depending on the size of the settlement. They also feel the need for the renewal of the infrastructure, and although they require it on the one hand, and are willing to compensate, demonstrate solidarity and social engagement on the other hand, they are not, however, aware of its weight and extent.