The Central and Eastern Europe Water and Wastewater Industry has been offering opportunities for the automation and control solutions (ACS) for the last few years but since the introduction of supportive legislation the market for Water and Wastewater Industry Control Technology will see rapid growth across Central and Eastern Europe.

Tough regulations and intervention from private companies has meant the need for a wide range of Control technology and Control systems with in the CEE area. Investment from the European Union and the EBRD and EIB are helping the developing economies of the Central and Eastern European region build new automated Water and Wastewater plants and retrofit existing plants with up to date Control Technology.

The market for Automation and Control Solutions in the Water and Wastewater industry with in Central and Eastern Europe and was worth € 255 million in 2009 and is estimated to reach € 370 in 2015. The Water and Wastewater Control industry covered in these figures by product type are programmable logic controller (PLC), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), disturbed control system (DCS), human machine interface (HMI), manufacturing execution systems (MES) and industrial asset management (IAM).

Central and Eastern Europe has generally a poor network in regards to water distribution and wastewater treatment. The EU directives such as the Water Frame Work Directive, Drinking Water Directive and Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive are the main political drivers that have created strong opportunities for treatment techniques such as membrane bio-reactor (MBR), ozone and ultraviolet (UV). The EU directives are the major force for the growth of automation and control systems across the water and wastewater sector. Automation Control Technology for the Water and Wastewater Industry helps to completely automate Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment helping continually tracking several production processes and also effect control and maintain various plant operations.

Cee-Environmental states that the Automation and Control Systems being implemented in Central and Eastern Europe will greatly improve the efficient running of the Water and Wastewater plants saving costs as well as cutting down on Manpower so again saving cost as well. The Central and Eastern Europe accession countries face a race to meet the requirements of the EU regulations for Environmental standards and the use of Automation and Control Systems with in the Water and Wastewater Industry will greatly help them meet the requirements with in the Water and Wastewater Industry. European Union is funding the new member states from the CEE region to improve their Water and Wastewater infrastructure through the cohesion fund mechanism, leading to a plethora of design, build and operate (DBO) opportunities. All these initiatives are likely to spur growth of the European Automation and Control Systems market for the Water and Wastewater industry.

The use of Automation and Control Systems for new Water and Wastewater plants is straight forward, however the key challenge is faced by Automation and Control Systems manufacturers and they need to provide systems that seamlessly integrate with the existing plant infrastructure. Integration of Automation and Control Systems and the issues involved in this and the costs involved in retro fitting Water and Wastewater plants with Automation and Control Systems make the end users reluctant to implement the newer automation and control solutions. Automation and Control Systems manufacturers need to work hard to reassure the end users in Central and Eastern Europe that there products are compatible with there plants so therefore easy to adapt to the new systems, and high light the benefits in efficiency and therefore cost savings.