Water & Wastewater
Drinking water is the one thing nobody forgives a failure on.
Water suppliers, municipal associations, and wastewater operators are often small outfits carrying a responsibility that admits no excuses. Control technology here has often run for twenty years unchanged — and that's exactly the task at hand.
Does this apply to you?
Annex 1 · Sector 5
Sector: Water
Drinking water supply (operators of water supply systems under the Drinking Water Ordinance) and wastewater disposal (collection, disposal, and treatment under Section 54(1) of the Federal Water Act).
Entity of essential importance
at least 250 employees — or annual turnover above €50 million and an annual balance sheet total above €43 million
Applies to entity types under Annex 1 · Section 28(1), (2) BSIG
Important entity
at least 50 employees — or annual turnover and balance sheet total above €10 million
Applies to entity types under Annexes 1 and 2 · Section 28(1), (2) BSIG
Important for you: Exempt are businesses for which water supply or wastewater treatment is only an immaterial part of their overall activity.
Covered regardless of size: operators of critical facilities, qualified trust service providers, top-level domain registries, and DNS service providers (Section 28(1) Nos. 1, 2 BSIG); trust service providers always count as an important entity (Section 28(2) No. 1 BSIG). Employee count and financial figures are alternative thresholds (either one triggers coverage); for the financial figures, both values must be exceeded. Whether your specific company is covered is a case-by-case question — that's what lawyers are for.
What's typically in the register in this sector
These obligations decide it for you.
Section 30(2) No. 5 BSIG
Run old technology safely
Security measures covering acquisition, development, and maintenance — including vulnerability management and disclosure. For equipment without vendor support left, that means: isolate, monitor, and plan the replacement.
Section 30(2) No. 3 BSIG
Crisis management that doesn't need IT to work
When the control room goes dark, you need a phone list on paper and a rehearsed procedure — not a scramble to find mobile numbers.
Section 38 BSIG
A management responsibility, not just a technician's
Management implements the risk-management measures, oversees their execution, and attends training regularly. A breach of this duty creates liability toward the organisation itself.
Example (fictional): The municipal association and the remote link
A municipal water association runs four pumping stations, serviced remotely by an engineering firm. The connection runs through software the vendor discontinued three years ago. Nobody objected — it still works, after all.
In the association's first risk assessment, that exact connection comes out on top: high likelihood, high impact. The association doesn't replace the software right away, but it separates it from the rest of the network, documents the decision, and sets a deadline. A blind spot becomes a conscious, justified, and demonstrable decision.
A freely invented example for illustration — no real customer, no legal advice
Here's how Compliverse takes this off your plate.
- 1
Assets with criticality ratings and risks with scoring — linked directly to the measure that treats each risk.
- 2
The management report makes the board's oversight duty visible at the push of a button (Section 38 BSIG).
- 3
The management training course sits ready with a certificate — including for volunteer association leadership.
NIS2 in Water & Wastewater: frequently asked questions
Is my Water & Wastewater company in scope for NIS2?
Your sector is covered by Germany's BSI Act: Annex 1 · Sector 5, sector Water. That does not put you in scope automatically — a size threshold has to be met as well (Section 28(1), (2) BSIG). And no official notice arrives: you assess the classification yourself and register if it applies (Section 33 BSIG). Your sector also has an exception — it is set out on this page under “Are you in scope?”. Judging your individual case is a lawyer's job.
From what size does NIS2 apply to us?
You count as an essential entity from at least 250 employees — or annual turnover above €50 million and an annual balance sheet total above €43 million; as an important entity from at least 50 employees — or annual turnover and balance sheet total above €10 million (Section 28(1), (2) BSIG). Headcount and financial figures are alternatives to each other — but where the financial figures are used, both have to be exceeded. Some entity types are in scope regardless of size, among them operators of critical facilities and qualified trust service providers.
Which authority is responsible for us in Germany?
Registration and supervision sit with the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) — Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (Section 33 BSIG). Security incidents, however, do not go there: they go to the joint reporting office of the BSI and the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) — early warning within 24 hours, report within 72 hours, follow-up report a month later (Section 32 BSIG). This is the most common misreading of the act — the supervisory authority and the reporting office are not the same body.
What happens if we do not implement NIS2?
The obligations do not go away: registration stays due (Section 33 BSIG), so do the risk-management measures (Section 30(2) BSIG), and reporting deadlines start running with the first significant incident (Section 32 BSIG). On top of that, Section 38 BSIG puts management personally on the hook: they have to approve the measures, oversee their implementation, and undergo training themselves. “I didn't know” does not carry here.
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Legal status checked on 01/09/2026 · Every statement with a source · No legal advice