COLLECTION, PURIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WATER

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

Legal and methodological framework

Data on the public water supply are collected through the annual statistical survey entitled the Annual Survey on Water Supply System (VOD-2V form) on the basis of the Official Statistics Act (NN, Nos 25/20, 155/23, 124/25 – corr. and 69/26).

Coverage

Reporting units are public water suppliers of public water services. According to the Water Act (NN, No. 47/23), the public water supplier of public water services is a company in which all shares or equity shares are held by local self-government units or companies in which all shares or equity shares are held directly by local self-government units or by institutions founded by a local self-government unit.

The report is filled in by legal entities and parts thereof registered according to the NKD 2025 (NN, No. 47/24) in section E Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities, class 36.00 Water collection, treatment and supply.

The source for the address list is the Statistical Business Register.

The survey provides data on supplied water, distributed water and the public water main network.

Definitions

Public water supply means the activity of abstracting groundwater and surface water intended for human consumption and its conditioning, as well as their delivery to the end user or another water service provider, if the mentioned operations are conducted through public water supply facilities. It also includes management of the above-mentioned facilities, or delivery in some other way prescribed by law (tanks, aquifers, etc.).

Water supply from public water supply system is the total volume of water abstracted from groundwater (underground sources and springs), surface waters (watercourses, reservoirs and lakes) and the total volume of water abstracted from other water supply systems.

Abstracted volume of water is the total volume of water abstracted from all water sources. Water sources may be ground and surface ones. Public springs are all sources that are used in supplying of water mains, such as underground aquifers, springs, watercourses, reservoirs and lakes.

Distributed volume of water is the volume of water sold to consumers (households and economy) and to other water supply systems, water used in own water supply system and volume of uncharged water.

Total water losses are losses actually found in public water main network, caused by mechanical malfunctions or installation defects on water mains.

The length of the public water main network consists of the length of water mains and the length of the distribution network.

The length of water mains is the length of pipes used for the supply of water and reaching of the required pressure.

The length of the distribution network is the length of the water main network from the tank to the consumer (excluded are the length of connections and network in a building).

Abbreviations

km              kilometre

m³                         cubic metre

NKD 2025    National Classification of Activities, 2025 version

NN              Narodne novine, official gazette of the Republic of Croatia

'000             thousand