Legal Aspects of the Acquisition of Water Supply Facilities

Abstract

The subject of grid acquisitions has so far been assumed to concern almost exclusively the areas of electricity and gas. However, this view is clearly changing. The discussion on water prices and the fear of a privatisation of water supply on orders of the European Union are leading more and more municipalities, which in the past had for various reasons outsourced their water supply to external water supply companies, to consider taking back water supply into their own hands upon expiry of the current water concession agreement. This often means that the water supply facilities have to be taken over from the previous owner, the local water supply company. As with any acquisition of a set of infrastructure facilities, this gives rise to a variety of legal questions, e.g. regarding the right to recover possession of the facilities, its scope and the valuation of the set of facilities to be handed over, which are presented in brief in the following with particular reference to water supply matters.