The Greek and European legislation since the end of 2005 require the collection and treatment of waste water in all agglomerations of >2000 population equivalents (priority c).

To address this important issue, 3 Ministries (Environment and Energy, Development and Interior) as well as local authorities, with the initiative of the European Commission (DG REGIO) agreed on the design and implementation of a National Operational Plan for Wastewater. The plan is governed by the Steering Committee, a decision-making body with representatives from the ministries and local authorities, meeting on a regular basis.

The Technical Secretariat for wastewater acts as the operational mechanism monitoring the implementation of the National wastewater Operational Plan. The MOU constitutes the main core of this Technical Secretariat.

In February 2020, the Steering Committee approved the process of reforming the National Wastewater Operational Plan and include all the necessary information to meet the enabling condition for wastewater, according to which the country must have in force a National Plan for the wastewater sector until 2027.

The updated Regional Operational Plans include the planning of investments until the end of 2027, the investments for all the priority agglomerations of the country as well as the forecast of investment needs for the rehabilitation of problems in existing infrastructure, so that the enabling condition for wastewater for the new Programming Period is fulfilled.

During the 6th Steering Committee, on 21/12/2020, the updated National Operational Plan for the Management of wastewater was presented and approved unanimously by the members of the committee.

The National Plan consists of the Executive Summary and the 13 Regional Operational Wastewater Plans (approved in November 2020).

The National Operational Plan for Waste Water affects 482 agglomerations.