The principle of cost recovery established by the Water Framework Directive underlines the need for tax rates, which can raise enough revenue to finance the cost of treatments applied to wastewater. The objective of this research is to gain an understanding the different types of charges related to urban wastewater treatment that can be levied by the authorities responsible for this service. This paper also aims to determine whether these taxes contribute to guaranteeing the economic feasibility of the wastewater treatment plants. The proposed methodological approach is applied to 18 municipalities of a province in southern Europe in 2017. The results confirm that in most of these cases, the taxes levied do not guarantee adequate tax revenues to cover the running, maintenance and investment costs of municipal wastewater treatment plants. This situation leads to a lack of financial self-sufficiency in the wastewater management service, meaning that the imbalance between income and expenditure has to be covered by government subsidies. The results of this study will help guide authorities around the world that are in charge of managing urban wastewater treatment services.

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80% of all wastewater is discharged into the environment without first eliminating contaminants, and the consequences are cause for concern. The ecotaxes levied on effluents in many developed countries are aimed at preventing and minimizing water pollution and also, in part, helping to finance proper water reclamation facilities. The aim of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the current tax burden in a set of European Union countries on wastewater discharges and to assess its relationship with the quality of fresh water and other economic and political variables. The paper draws on different theoretical arguments and estimates a panel data model to verify the effectiveness of taxes in protecting aquatic ecosystems. These taxes are directly dependent on the environmental health status of water and inversely linked to the volume of discharged wastewater. In addition, a direct relationship is found between the tax burden on wastewater discharges and the variables representing the Human Development Index, the per capita expenditure on protecting water resources, the relative weight of ecotaxes in a country's total tax revenues, and public support for green political movements.

The treatment of wastewater, financed through environmental taxes, is key to the development of a sustainable economy. The objective of this study is to verify whether the tax loads on wastewater discharges applied in Spain are effective, allowing the costs of secondary and tertiary treatments to be financed. First, the revenues collected from taxes related to the discharge of wastewater in the different Spanish regions, which reach an average value of 0.72 €/m3, are analysed. Second, the costs of secondary wastewater treatment, prolonged aeration, activated sludge with nutrient removal, and activated sludge without nutrient removal are studied. Additionally, the costs of tertiary treatments, with environmental objectives and for reuse purposes, are considered. The analysis carried out reveals high heterogeneity in the amounts collected through taxes in the different Autonomous Communities. In some cases, these amounts do not cover the costs of the treatments. An urgent review is therefore required of the financing systems applied in order to secure a level of income that can cover all the exploitation and investment costs incurred.

RESUMENEl actual entorno globalizado y el aumento generalizado de la difusión y de la utilización de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) por parte de las empresas y de los consumidores, hace que el uso de estas tecnologías sea fundamental para que el sector cooperativo oleícola afronte la creciente competencia en el mercado. Centrado en dicho sector, en este trabajo analizamos el grado de utilización del comercio electrónico, tanto a través de los sitios Web como mediante los mercados electrónicos y la utilización que estas empresas realizan de las redes sociales como herramientas facilitadoras de la actividad comercial. Para esto, realizamos un análisis comparativo entre las cooperativas oleícolas andaluzas y el resto de formas jurídicas presentes en el sector.Palabras clave: Sector del aceite de oliva, cooperativas, comercio electrónico, redes sociales online, mercados electrónicos.Claves ECONLIT: O13, O33, P13, Q13.1 Este trabajo de investigación ha sido financiado por el proyecto de excelencia de la Junta de Andalucía: "Estrategias de mejora de la comercialización de los aceites de oliva". Código: AGR-6132. 2 Universidad de Jaén. Direcciones de correo electrónico: f.u.domingo@gmail.com, ebernal@ujaen.es, amozas@ujaen.es, mjmedina@ujaen.es y emoral@ujaen.es.