It is now becoming more and more widely accepted that, due to water scarcity caused by climate change, we need to consider rainwater as a valuable natural resource. This is the aim of the LIFE in Runoff project, which highlights the legal and regulatory gaps that make stormwater management difficult – not only for public service providers and municipalities, but also for citizens.

A novel, integrated approach to stormwater management in Budapest is still a challenge. Underlying this is a complex set of problems, which need to be understood first and foremost in the context of stormwaterwe need to understand the infrastructure that supports the treatment.
Drainage in Budapest has two systems in a combined and separated system.
The separated system means that the wastewater and rainwater runs in separate channels so that it can be used if it is directed to the right place (e.g. for irrigation).
In a combined system, wastewater and rainwater are mixed, the valuable rainwater is then discharged directly into wastewater treatment plants or watercourses, effectively wasted.

A fundamental problem is that the stormwater drainage network is not, under current legislation, is a (water) utility. Why is this a problem? Because it is not subject to a service charge, the the utility is therefore not adequately resourced for the stormwater drainage network to carry out tasks (e.g. cleaning stormwater drains).
In Budapest, this further complicates situation that most of the districts would expect the Metropolitan Sewerage Works (FCSM Zrt.) to provide the stormwater management, FCSM Zrt.
however, as the stormwater drainage systems are not water utilities – does not consider it its responsibility to operate them. FCSM Zrt. the newly built will not take over the operation of stormwater drainage networks, but under the present legislation a unified network cannot be built.
The main problem is therefore that the regulatory environment currently no one is really addressing stormwater management.

This Gordian knot can be untied primarily by amending the law: stormwater drainage systems should be declared water utilities, which would make it possible to resolve the issue , who is responsible for stormwater management and where the funding could be found. A water management act (§ 6 of the LVII Act of 1995), the owner of the property is responsible for the However, this is not the case in dense and older buildings and in the case of is not technically feasible in many cases.
Rainfall from properties onto public land the regulation may specify the proportion of the public service operator’s undertakes to manage it to the extent that.
Ideally, the owner should make a contribution in proportion to the burden should pay the utility company (?).
The reason for this is that the water that falls or the drainage of stormwater from private land is in the public interest and can therefore be considered a public service, and the amount of stormwater runoff from private property is controlled by the property owners Influence.
In addition to legislative and regulatory changes, it is therefore important that citizens and businesses involvement: to make property owners as aware of their responsibilities as possible. on the service providers, road operators and local authorities to bear as little as possible of the and to try as far as possible to use rainwater on their own land, locally.

The main existing legislation affecting stormwater management:

On water management LVII. tv. of 1995; Act CCIX. of 2011 on water utility services; the National 253/1997 on Town Planning and Building Requirements.
(XII. 20.) Government Decree No.