Review for building knowledge database and consensus report on recommendation on wlaw

8WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT IN FRANCE

Considered as a simple fluid for too long, water must now be viewed as an environment that sustains life which should be preserved in quantity as well as in quality and diversity.

Throughout of the world it is now necessary to provide legal, organizational and technical answers that can enable a real management of water allowing:

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  Fighting erosion, support the low waters, prevent the natural disasters and the risks such as flooding or drought,
  
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  Improving the services of drinking water adduction and treatment of the waste waters,
  
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  Catering for agricultural production;
  
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  The development of the industry, energy generation and, in some sectors, enable recreational and tourism activities as well as the fluvial transports, notably for the integrated land developments with versatile vocation;
  
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  Preventing permanent, diffuse or accidental pollutions, and preserve the equilibriums and the aquatic ecosystems.
  

All these issues cannot be solved on a sectional basis and separately one from the others anymore, and they should be dealt with within the frame of an integrated approach at the geographical level of each large hydrographic basin.

From now on, it is at the level of every affluent, of every large catchment area that the strategies must be defined and the programmes devised. It is also at these same levels that financing and the administrative and technical means for management must be found, checked, monitored and the results validated.

And this implies the mobilization of considerable means:

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  Financial means, on the one hand, to modernize the existing facilities, create the different land developments and the new equipment indispensable to set up the networks for the measures and analyses necessary to the observation of the phenomena and their evolutions ;
  
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  Human means, on the other hand, to organize the institutions and the management structures, to make the decision-makers at all levels aware and to train the people, professionals and technicians from the water area (water, designers, realization people, builders, exploiters, distributors, etc) and users (farmers, aquaculture farmers, industrialists, fishermen, sportsmen, etc). The limited human resources available are in fact hindering progress in this area as well as in many others.
  

In France, the legislation and the administrative and technical structures required have been gradually implemented.

The answers given, notably from 1954 and updated in 2006, have now enabled all the partners involved in water management and usage, recognized as a common heritage of the Nation, to take concerted action for the general interest.

Even though it should not be considered as a model, this French experience can inspire the authorities from other countries and help them. Indeed, owing to its precedence and its results, this model can help in the implementation of diversified and adapted organizations for the satisfaction of their local needs.

8.1From 1964 to 2007, towards integrated water management

8.1.1. 1964 – 1992: The basis for the water policy in France

The law of 16 December 1964 constitutes the basis of the modern principle of water management by catchment area. It shows three main principles that are now recognized but which were very innovative at the time:

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  A decentralized management at the level of the large hydrographic catchments;
  
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  A concerted management lead by a local assembly made up of elected representatives, water stakeholders, representatives from the administrations concerned by water;
  
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  Incentive financial tools for a good qualitative and quantitative management.
  

The application of these principles constitutes a first approach which acts on the preservation of the resource and on the management of demand between the different users within the finite and limited frame of the catchment area. The notion of potential wastage of the reserve due to pollution discharged in the environment and the taxation of the volumes of water through the water charges are going in the direction of water savings and a reduction in water demand.

8.1.2. 1992 – 2000: Water is the common heritage of the Nation

The law of 3 January 1992 ensures passage from a policy built on structures, such as defined by the text of 1964, towards a policy of environment that involves a relaunch of planning and taking into account global management through objectives.

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  The heritage character of water (1^st article)
  
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  The global and interlinking management of the water resource in all its forms, surface waters, ground waters, coastal marine water between all the users;
  
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  The conservation of the aquatic ecosystems and of the wetlands
  
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  The valorization of water viewed as an economic resource for the different
  

(Article 3 and 4)

In the sub-basins, it is the Plan for Water Development and Management (or SAGE in French) backed by the local structures that is the tool for the management and protection of the uses and the water resource (art 5).
Since passing the law of 1992, several specific aspects were not covered by a legislative text and the application of the water management had shown lack of rigor. The main issue was the fact that the Constitutional Council had declared that the water charges paid to the Water Agencies were unconstitutional and this issue was not solved by the law of 1992, as well as the revision of the statutes of the Higher Fishing Council. Additionally, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) adopted in 2000 was to be transcribed into French law before the 22 December 2003.

8.1.3. 2000 – 2006: The law for transposition of the WFD

The different ministers for Environment that followed one another have launched since 1999 a wide debate on the overhaul of the law on water which did not succeed before the deadline for the transposition of the European directive. And this has imposed the implementation of a separate text of law adopted on 22 April 2004. This text has set very ambitious objectives for the country:

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  Carry through in 2015 the good status of waters;
  
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  Reduce, even eliminate the discharges of hazardous substances;
  
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  Secure public participation in working-out and monitoring of the policies;
  
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  Take into account the principle of recovering the costs of the services related to the use of waters.
  

The situation that prevails in France is not satisfying on these different aspects. And the assessment that was performed over these last years by the Water Agencies and the services of the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development has shown that further efforts should be accomplished before 2015. Indeed, the good ecological status is only achieved for some 50% of the water bodies because of the point sources and diffuse pollution that are poorly managed and imbalance between water demand and water offer very often accentuated during the drought period (summer 2003 for example). To achieve these objectives, the transposition law completes the procedure for working-out the SDAGE (French acronym for Master Plan for Water Development and Management) that should be updated before the end of 2009. It confirms the Basin Committee in its role for the definition of the objectives under the water policy at the level of the hydrographic basin. The actions that should be launched are specified in the programme of measures (cf. chapter 2).

8.1.4. 2006: The law on water and the aquatic environments

The LEMA, or law on water and the aquatic environments was promulgated on the 30 December 2006. This law involved two fundamental objectives:

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  Provide the administration, the territorial communities and the water stakeholders in general with the tools for recapturing water quality. And achieve in 2015 the objectives of good ecological status set by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) dated 22 December 2000, transposed in French law through the law of 21 April 2004). And return to a better adequacy between water resources and needs within a perspective of sustainable development of the economic activities that are using water and by favouring a dialogue closer to the ground;
  
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  Provide the territorial communities with the means to adapt the public services of potable water and sanitation to the new stakes in terms of transparency vis-à-vis the users, of solidarity towards the destitute and of environmental efficiency.
  

In parallel, this law allows to achieve other objectives and notably to modernize the organization of the federative structures for fresh water fishing.

8.1.5. Summary of the main texts

Law n° 92-3 dated 3 January 1992 on water