Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

S E I N E - N O R M A N D Y B A S I N , F R A N C E / 4 3 9associations to operate drinking water supply (an approach thatconcerns 67 percent of the basin’s population) and wastewatertreatment (16 percent of the basin’s population) networks. Theyalso create joint public-private partnerships by subcontracting watersupply and treatment services to private companies under varioustypes of contracts (85 percent of the basin’s population for watersupply, 36 percent for wastewater treatment). They are still,however, responsible for the system and the private service providermust return the network in proper working order at the end of thecontract period.In addition to water supply and treatment services, watermanagement involves many responsibilities that are sometimesrather vague. An example of this is the management of privatelyowned rivers. Their maintenance is, theoretically, the responsibilityof riparian owners but, in practice, is often undertaken byintercommunity volunteer groups.All water users must comply with standards set by the waterlaws, and compliance is monitored by local representatives of stateagencies. The state, therefore, remains the ‘guardian’ of theresource. It is also responsible for maintaining public rivers, a tasklargely delegated to the French Navigable Waterways Authority(Voies Navigables de France).Faced with this complex allocation of responsibility, the role ofthe Water Agency at the river basin level is to promote measuresundertaken to ensure a balance between water resources andneeds. Its role is mainly financial. It allocates funds – in the form ofloans or subsidies – for projects that correspond to the objectivesof the Water Agency programme. Thus, by evaluating proposals andmonitoring funded projects, it also plays an advisory and consultantrole that is widely recognized by its partners. The money that itdistributes comes from users in the form of taxes or fees based onthe quantities of water consumed and the amount of pollutiondischarged. It collects all the water taxes from its river basin. Theacknowledged neutrality of the Water Agency also enables it to actas a mediator.Undeniable but limited public participationThe Basin Committee is an advisory and decision-making body madeup of three representative groups – elected officials, water usersand people appointed by the state. After studying the situationwithin the basin, the Committee recommends water tax bases andrates, based on the five-year plans drawn up by the Water Agencyand its Board of Trustees (which is made up in the same way as theBasin Committee). Water Agency programmes must follow theSDAGE guidelines, which, in accordance with Water Lawrequirements, are also the result of extensive collaboration. Thestate is, therefore, but one of many participants involved in theplanning stages (see figure 19.2). It participates in discussionsconcerning policies that are made and financed by those directlyinvolved. It has, however, administrative control over all of theactions carried out. At a local level (water course, groundwater),very decentralized mechanisms enable the allocation of localresponsibilities. Cooperation is achieved through interdepartmentalagreements, intercommunity associations and, in particular, localparticipatory initiatives such as local water management plans(SAGEs, Schémas d’aménagement de gestion des eaux), which aredrawn up for sub-river basin catchment areas along the lines of theriver basin level SDAGE, and ‘rural contracts’ created by the AESN.The composition of the Basin Committee and the steeringcommittees of the local participatory initiatives guarantee, inprinciple, that water management is, to a certain extent, open tothe public. In practice, however, this attempt to be open issometimes ineffective. User participation in debates is often minimal,local input often being limited to financial-level rather than projectlevelplanning. Faced with this situation, which is closely related tothe general timidity of civil society in France, it is clear that theWater Agency needs to encourage more public participation, inparticular when the WFD goes into effect.Payment of water services, financial aid and resourcemanagementThe water bill paid by domestic and industrial users hooked up tothe municipal water supply network covers the cost of drinkingwater distribution and wastewater collection and treatment. Theprice of water varies according to its treatment, management,supply conditions, and wastewater discharge. The bill also includes apollution tax and a resource withdrawal tax levied by the WaterAgency. These taxes represent only a small proportion of the totalwater bill. Their revenues are redistributed by the Water Agency inthe form of interest-free loans or subsidies, in accordance with afive-year programme drawn up jointly by representatives of waterusers within the framework of the basin’s SDAGE. This financial aidis meant to incite users to reduce the impact they have on theresource through investments or improved techniques. The amountof financial aid allocated to the various categories of users isroughly equivalent to the taxes they pay. Funds are, however,shifted somewhat between the basin’s various categories of usersand geographic areas according to a principle of ‘basin solidarity’.For example, domestic users in Paris pay, on average, more inpollution and withdrawal taxes than they get back in aid. This isunderstandable since their water is pumped upstream and theycontribute significantly to pollution downstream. The WFDrecommends that the actual cost of water be fully paid by users,that an ‘actual cost’ indicator be measured, and that appropriaterates be charged to improve quality. In the Seine-Normandy basin,and elsewhere in France, consumers are billed for the cost of