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

8.2Organization of the authorities

8.2.1. Six basic principles

The management of the surface and ground waters, considered as the “common heritage of the Nation”, is backed in France by six main fundamental principles:

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  Taking into account the geographic reality of the main catchment areas since “water knows no administrative boundaries”;
  
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  An integrated approach aiming at the satisfaction of all the different usages while respecting the aquatic ecosystems;
  
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  Organizing the partnership and the coordination of the interventions of the Authorities and developers: and this is the role of the six Basin Committees and the Prefects coordinating the basin; this is the objective of the Master Plans for Water Development and Management (French acronym SDAGE) and the Plan for Water Development and Management (French acronym SAGE);
  
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  The mobilization of the specific financial resources, since “water has to pay for water”, therefore the users-polluters must be the payers; and this is the vocation of the six Water Agencies;
  
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  Several years planning that outlines the priority investments in the frame of the Ninth programmes of the Water Agencies (2007-2012) and the river contracts;
  
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  The respect of the competencies of each public or private owners, each one for what concerns themselves within the collective frame set by the Law.
  

And thus, the French national territory is divided into six large “River Basin Districts”:

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  Of the Adour and Garonne;
  
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  Of the Artois and Picardie;
  
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  Of the Loire and Brittany;
  
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  Of the Rhine and Meuse;
  
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  Of the Rhône, the Mediterranean and Corsica;
  
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  Of the Seine and Normandy.
  

8.2.2. Partnership management associating all the users

Water policy is defined on a partnership basis between the State, all the Territorial Communities and the users – manufacturers, large regional developers, fishermen and fish farmers, conservation associations – associated at each level, since this aims to organize a global management of the resource, by optimizing the satisfaction of all the needs while respecting the aquatic ecosystems.

Dialogue is institutionalized at three levels:

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  At the national level
  

The National Council for Water is made up of representatives designated by decree of the Minister of the Environment upon proposal made by the interested ministers, users, general and municipal councils, the concerned administrations and the personalities competent in the water issues.

The Minister refers to the Council all the issues for which Council has to give its opinion pursuant to the amended law of 16 December 1964. The Water Division is in charge of the Council’s Secretariat.

It is consulted regarding the orientations of the national water policy and notably on the projects of legal and regulatory texts.

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  Governance and basin districts:
  

The Directive 2000/60/CE of the European Parliament and Council dated 23 October 2000 setting a framework for a community policy in the area of water stipulates, in its article 13, that “the conditions and different needs that exist within the Community require specific solutions. This diversity should be taken into account in planning and the implementation of the measures designed for the protection and ecologically viable use of the waters within the frame of the hydrographic basin. It is advisable that the decisions made at this level be as close as possible to the places of utilization or deterioration of water”. The hydrographic basin is defined as the appropriate territorial level for the water governance, the management of conflicts, with water sharing based on the upstream and downstream uses at the heart of the dialogue process. Excessive upstream pollution or abstraction has indeed, serious consequences for the downstream users. Water governance and management are mutually dependant, with the system of governance implemented producing consequences on the resource management and vice versa. In its article 35, the WFD stipulates “it is advisable, within a hydrographic basin where the water uses are susceptible to have cross-boundary effects that the requirements relative to the realization of the environmental objectives set in accordance with the present directive, and more particularly all the programmes of measures, be coordinated for the entire hydrographic district”.

The water agencies play the role of booster of the actions at the level of the hydrographic basin through financial incentives granted to the local owners for the realization of the actions that are matching the objectives set by the agencies. To achieve this purpose, the agencies rely on the links established with the local stakeholders and thus seek bodies such as the mixed syndicates to support the SAGE or the environment contracts. They can sign framework agreements that are binding partners from the institutions and the territory management areas: the regions, departments, the communities of towns, Public Territorial Basin Establishments, etc. These tools are designed for reinforcing collaboration and dialogue.

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  At the level of the affluents and the sub-basins corresponding to an hydrographic unit or an aquifer:
  

A LOCAL WATER COMMISSION made up for half by the representatives from the territorial communities, for one quarter of the users representatives, and for another quarter of the State representatives, can be created to elaborate and follow the application of the Plan for Water Development and Management (SAGE).

When the scheme has been approved, the decisions made within the water area by the administrative authorities, and applicable within the perimeter that it is outlining, must be compatible or made compatible with this scheme.

The "Local Water Community" can be responsible to undertake the study, the execution and the exploitation of all the works, structures or installations that have a character of general interest or emergency, and cover:

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  The development of a basin or a section of an hydrographic basin;
  
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  The maintenance and management of a non-national water course, including the accesses to the watercourses;
  
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  The water supply;
  
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  The management of the storm waters and the runoff waters;
  
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  The defense against floodings and the sea;
  
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  The fight against pollution;
  
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  The protection and conservation of the surface and ground waters;
  
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  The protection and reclamation of the sites, the aquatic ecosystems and the wetlands as well as the neighbouring wooded formations;
  
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  The hydraulic structures that contribute to civil security.
  

8.3.3. The polluter-pays principle and the Water agencies: A twenty-five-year experience

 
Under the law on water of 1964, a water agency was created in each of the basin districts. It took the shape of an administrative public establishment with the civil status and financial autonomy.

The field of intervention covers the surface waters, the ground waters and the marine coastal waters.

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  Organization and attributions:
  

The Agency is managed by a Board that includes: 8 representatives from the territorial communities, 8 representatives from the different categories of users, 8 State representatives, 1 representative from the Agency’s personnel.

The Chairman of the Board and the Agency’s Director are appointed by the Government.

Their means of intervention are:

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  The financial participations that they can bring for the execution of all types of works, construction and exploitation of the structures that meet the needs set by the Basin Committee;
  
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  The studies and research on water that the agencies can carry out or have performed on its behalf.
  

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  The financial means for intervention:
  

The resources of the Water Agencies originates from the application of the “user-polluter-pays” principle that lead them to receive charges on the abstractions and discharges of all the users that have an impact on the quality of the water by modifying the regime.

Concerning the manufacturers, the charges are calculated on the basis of different parameters specific to each branch of activity and to the volume of pollution produced by each establishment.

For the domestic uses, it is calculated for each commune on the basis of the permanent and seasonal population, and received when the user pays their invoice of water measured at the water meter.

The rates applied for calculation of the charges are set by each Water agency in agreement with the Basin Committee so as to balance the priority programmes of intervention. They are modulated geographically according to the priorities and the quality objectives defined by the Basin Committee.

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  The intervention programmes of the Water Agencies (2007-2012)
  

These are six (6) different programmes, adapted to the stakes of each basin and to the concerns of the stakeholders, but at the service of a sole and same policy for a balanced and sustainable management of the water resource. The means allocated to the Ninth programme reflect the unprecedented mobilization towards the water policy desired by the Government for the coming six years. Means amount to a total of 11.6 billion Euros excluding subsidies and contributions to the National Office for Water and the aquatic environments, which replaces the Higher Council for Fishing and which funding are provided by the water agencies. These programmes are fully-funded by the charges of the water agencies. The law on water and the aquatic environments has effectively maintained the principles that have made the agencies’ success, notably environmental taxation which have proved its worth since 40 years to date, and is based on the “water pays for water” principle.

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  Make up for the time lost by France in the application of some European texts, more particularly the urban waste-water treatment directive of 1991, which imposes that all the waste water treatment plants be put into compliance.
  
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  Implement the Water Framework Directive that directs the action towards a logic of result and implies that the water agencies’ actions are more focused on targeted interventions over the territories and to progressively raise the share designed for the actions of remediation of the aquatic environments.
  To ensure the protection of the resource and sustainable development of the economic activities related to water, the minister had required a reinforcement of the actions of the water agencies on several areas:
  

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  Concerning potable water, favour action directed more towards preventive than curative action, eg treat the pollutions at source and take into account the objective of the National Health and Environment Plan to complete the implementation of the perimeter for protecting the water draftings since 2010;
  
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  Fighting the diffuse pollutions is also a major stake. This is why the water agencies will have as a mission to mobilize all the players upstream the critical water bodies to implement the reinforced territorial actions;
  
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  In application to the management plan for water rarity, the water agencies will intervene to reinforce the adequacy between the water uses and the resources available, including through the development of innovative solutions and mobilization of the new resources;
  
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  The amounts allocated to the management of the aquatic environments are trebled.
  

The Ninth programmes have been elaborated through a dialogue approach between the Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development and the basin committees that were the driving forces for the development of a dialogue and debate within the basins involving the local stakeholders as well as the State services. The law on water and the aquatic environments is effectively reinforcing the competencies of the basin committees to which the programs of the water agencies will be submitted for opinion.

8.3.4. The authorizations for abstractions and discharges: the water police, a State competency

The prefect of the region where the basin committee has its headquarters runs and coordinates the State policy. Policy covers aspects such as water police and resource management in water in order to provide unity and coherence for the decentralized actions of the State in this respect in the concerned departments and regions.

The prefect coordinating the basin has the necessary means, notably for the management of the situations of crisis.
Whether this is about the surface waters or the ground waters, it is the decentralized regional or department services of the State - Regional Industry and Research Division (DRIRE), Department Division for Farming and Equipment (DDAF and DDE) – that are conducting the application dossiers according to their competencies:

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  Concessions for use of the water courses and falls, notably for the micro electrical power stations;
  
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  For the management of the rivers, the lakes and the sheets of water;
  
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  For extraction of the materials and gravels;
  
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  For abstracting water for the different uses;
  
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  For the discharges of waste waters and sludge and manure spreading;
  
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  For opening landfills;
  
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  For the exploitation of the notifiable establishments classified as dangerous or unfit for habitation.
  

The installations, structures, works or activities that can constitute a danger for health and security, have serious effects on the water resource and the aquatic ecosystems, and be harmful to the free flow of waters or increase the risk of flooding, are subjected to administrative authorization.

The other installations, works or activities that do not carry such dangers are however subjected to notification.

Authorization is granted after public enquiry and, if needed, for a determined duration.

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  In the interest of salubrity and notably to preserve the potable water supply to the populations;
  
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  To prevent and end the floodings or in case of threat to public security;
  
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  In case of major threat for the aquatic environments when these are subjected to critical hydraulic conditions non comparable with their preservation;
  
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  When the structure are disused or no longer subject to regular maintenance.
  

The installations subjected to authorization or notification enabling abstractions in surface water or when spillage or pumping of the ground waters must be fitted with appropriate measure or evaluation means. Their exploiters or owners are responsible for setting and operating these means and must keep the corresponding data and make these available to the relevant administrative authority.