INS: 55.8% of the resident population had homes connected to sewerage systems in 2020

A number of 10,794,270 inhabitants had their homes connected to the sewerage systems, in 2020, by 279,346 people more compared to the previous year, representing 55.8% of the resident population of Romania, according to the data published on Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS). Regarding wastewater treatment, the population connected to the sewerage systems equipped with treatment plants was 10,540,388 people, representing 54.5% of the country's resident population, by 276,086 people more than in 2019. According to the INS, the increases were determined by the connection of the population to the newly built sewerage networks, respectively by the commissioning of new wastewater treatment plants. At the level of development regions, the largest share of the population connected to sewerage systems, in total resident population, was registered in the Bucharest-Ilfov region (88.5%), followed by the Center region (68.3%) and West (62.8%). The lowest degree of connection to sewerage systems was recorded in the North-East (38.7%), South-Muntenia (38.9%) and South-West Oltenia (42.9%) development regions. Last year, in the urban area the population connected to sewerage amounted to 9,636,282 people, representing 92.2% of the urban resident population of Romania, and in rural areas a number of 1,157,988 people benefited from sewerage services, representing 13.1% of the rural resident population of Romania. AGERPRES (RO - editor: Nicoleta Gherasi; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi, editor: Adina Panaitescu)