Publications

 

 

The DWA offers a wide range of publications that include those relating to the DWA rules and standards, the DWA topics and other specialist books and journals.

The current year sees the celebration of a special DWA rules and standards anniversary: it was fifty years ago – in February 1957 – that the board of trustees for Soil and Water Management (KfK) and the Wastewater Association (ATV) published the first standard entitled “Planung einer Abwasserableitung und Abwasserbehandlung (Grundlagen und Hinweise)” (Planning a Wastewater Disposal System and Wastewater Treatment (Basic Instructions and Guidelines)).
 
Since then, the two organisations have developed into the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) whose set of rules and standards now consists of 260 standards and advisory leaflets. At the present time, there are more than 1600 experts working voluntarily in 280 specialist committees.
Technical rules and standards are an important aspect of the DWA’s work. By setting up these rules, the associations assume individual responsibility for their individual areas of expertise and reduce the burden on the state. A study carried out on behalf of the German Ministry of the Environment in 1998 on wastewater disposal established that technical norms contribute to a reduction in the cost of environmental protection: “The saving of costs in the construction and operation of plants outweigh the costs for working out and applying the norms.” Meanwhile more than 50 standards and advisory leaflets have been translated and their recommendations have been followed with great success outside Germany.
 
Voluntary work for the benefit of everyone
The DWA’s comprehensive set of rules and standards with its considerable value to society at large could not have been put together without the untiring cooperation of voluntary experts. There are at present more than 1600 experts from different disciplines engaged on a voluntary basis in the work of around 280 specialist committees, and if this number were to be spread over the fifty years this total would certainly be more than 20,000 experts, technicians, engineers and researchers. These people have invested a not inconsiderable share of their knowledge and leisure time to the creation of the DWA rules and standards. What had started on a small scale has been organised into ten main committees (at present) and their sub-committees and working groups and includes, with the exception of drinking water provision, the entire area covered by water management.

The areas of activity that unburden the state also help to save money.
 This statement was confirmed in 1998 by the Fraunhofer-Institut für Systemtechnik und Innovationsforschung in Karlsruhe. “Technical norms contribute to cost reduction in environmental protection. The savings in the construction and operation of plants outweigh the cost of creating and implementing norms.” This was the statement made in the study carried out on behalf of the German Ministry of the Environment. The research examined the effectiveness and efficiency of technical norms and standards for environmental protection measures at local level using wastewater disposal as the example.
On taking over the contents of the set of rules and standards, the associations also assume their own individual responsibility for their specific area of expertise and work to a large extent in a manner that eases the burden on the state whereby the norms of the DIN and the DWA set of rules and standards are accorded the same significance. By applying the contents of the rules and standards and norms, each expert can profit from the experience of colleagues that have been woven into the set.

 International success and effects of the DWA rules and standards. 
 More than 50 standards and advisory leaflets have been translated over the last few years. Particular emphasis has been placed on translations into English, but translations into French, Spanish, Polish, Czech and Chinese have also been completed. The first translation into Chinese of the standard A131 “Bemessung von einstufigen Belebungsanlagen ab 5 000 Einwohnerwerten” (The Measurement of Single Stage Activated Sludge Plants for a Population of over 5000) in 1999 allowed the knowledge and expertise of the ATV (as it then was) to become available to one of the most highly populated countries in the world.

Over time, the European work on standardization also grew in significance in environmental protection. Thus the DWA is actively engaged in the corresponding CEN committees. In this way, the practice-proven content of the DWA rules and standards can be incorporated directly into the international standardization process. In the wake of the enlargement of the EU, the validity of European norms has expanded considerably. With its translations, the DWA also provides a transfer of scientific knowledge into the new EU states even before they join: thus they already have the means to develop a modern approach to environmental protection at their disposal from the very start.