The Contract for Healthy Water: better water management for greater protection
After two years of collaboration with all water stakeholders as part of the New Water Ideas initiative, Lyonnaise des Eaux is launching a new water model: the Contract for Healthy Water.
In late 2009, Lyonnaise des Eaux initiated a broad debate with all water stakeholders. The objective was to promote a new water model. Throughout 2010, the collaborative platform New Water Ideas allowed 100,000 internet users to discuss their points of view about the future of water in France and the need to protect this natural resource. Out of 400 suggestions, 40 great ideas on water were finally selected. Forums of experts chaired by academic Erik Orsenna and philosopher Luc Ferry brought together scientists, public officials, urban planning specialists, industry members, representatives from the government water agency, NGOs, and associations to complete this enormous insight-building project.
At the end of these discussions, everyone seemed to agree on one fact: the water model is reaching the end of a cycle. The 20th century was the century of the infrastructures and networks to carry water to all French citizens. The challenge of the 21st century will be to protect this resource, qualitatively as well as quantitatively. It is absolutely vital to rethink water management, and encourage the transition from a model based on volume to a model based on value. “Never have the needs for water and sanitation been greater, if only because of new forms of pollution,” confirmed Erik Orsenna. “It is no longer the role of operators simply to distribute, they must now protect the resource. To do this means constant innovation and continual invention.”
Water: a fragile resource to be shared by all
While France does not lack water on the whole, resources are uneven and poorly distributed. For example, the Seine-Normandy basin has one-third less water per year and per inhabitant than the national average. Essential to biodiversity and required by human activities, water fashions eco-systems and the geographic distribution of populations. Given the growing urbanization and gradual dwindling of wetland in France, it is necessary to ensure better water circulation within the regions. Poorly distributed, water is carried with difficulty over long distances, and interactions among the various water users could increase conflicts in usage.
Water is also a fragile resource. Today, 50% of the surface water is in a poor environmental condition and the resource suffers from growing pressures from human activities, industrial and agricultural practices, and severe climate events. In the near future, global warming could increase droughts and flooding. The rise in the sea level already threatens certain underground water tables with salinization. Preservation of this resource is, therefore, a major challenge of our century.
Toward a new political, industrial, economic and social water model
Although 90% of elected officials make the growing scarcity of water resources their top concern, more than half of French residents incorrectly believe that they are drinking the water coming from water treatment plants. It is therefore essential to provide the public with more information about the reality of the water cycle. Other priorities include inventing new water management rules and rethinking its economic model. The models of the past based on the quantity of volumes sold are not obsolete and counter-productive. The imperative to preserve the water resource leads to a revision of the principle for remuneration of operators and a reform of the rate systems.
To respond to the challenges raised by communities and citizens, Lyonnaise des Eaux is proposing a new political, industrial, economic and social water model along with concrete solutions in order to act together to protect our water. This Contract for Healthy Water, which was launched on November 21, 2011, is based on three distinct pillars in the form of twelve commitments:
• Better water management for greater protection :
- Develop a formal local management charter by providing more information to customers about water and operators
- Share knowledge with all audiences
- Open up corporate governance and deploy operational ethics
• Innovate for the health of our water and measure effectiveness
- Save water
- Restore the good ecological condition of water and offset pressures on biodiversity
- Maintain a lead in the quality of drinking water
- Transform treatment and purification facilities into environmental platforms
- Develop human skills
• Promote a virtuous and collaborative water economy
- Integrate environmental performance in operator remuneration
- Share the value created equitably
- Make access to water possible for all
- Contribute to local job creation
With a desire for transparency, the SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT subsidiary has placed the effectiveness of its three pillars under the control of Vigeo, an independent social ratings agency.
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