Weak and Strong Sustainability Indicators, and Regional Environmental Resources
art in control technologies to minimize eventually harmful uses3. Groundwater has to be pro-
tected in its natural state, and the polluter-pays-principle as well as the avoidance principle
are the leading objectives. In the latest report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
(which is responsible for administrating the legal frameworks regarding water resources), the
term sustainability explicitly becomes part of the „official“ language. The Austrian Water Act
especially regarding the discharge of sewage is based on two approaches, which are part of
some of the strong (physical) sustainability criteria discussed above in section 4:
- Principle of minimizing emissions: This principle states that emissions have to be minimized
using the state of the art of control technologies. For over 60 economic branches as well as
communal sewage treatment, technologies and standards are set to control emissions.
- Principle of considering the regenerating capacity: Emissions have to be controlled to the
extent that immissions standards regarding the quality and regenerating capacity are met.
Emissions standards do not secure that immission standards are met everywhere. In every
single case the more tight standard has to be applied, either restricting emissions to the state of
technology if immissions standards are met, or forbidding the use of the water resources if
immissions standards are not met even with the most stringent application of state-of-the-art
technologies.
Despite these impressive efforts4 to protect water resources there are some regions within
Austria where the consumption of water exceeds the regeneration rates significantly. On aver-
age, only 3 percent of total water supply are currently used; taking groundwater supply as
basis, only 6 percent are extracted. The most fertile soils lie above others in the Eastern part of
Austria, namely in the „Marchfeld“, the „Waldviertel“ and „Weinviertel“. The first and third
face serious problems because of high extraction rates of groundwater extraction which lie
3 See for this and the following „Wasserrechtsgesetz 1959“ and Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirt-
schaft (1996).
4 Compared to actually discussed frameworks of the European Union, the Austrian water regulations are more
stringent with both principles.
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