Water management : supporting local authorities on the road to sustainability
juillet 2024
Without water, nothing is possible! However, this essential resource is neither infinite nor immutable.
Faced with the challenges of water management, accentuated by climate change, and the ‘investment wall’ that local authorities are confronted with, the Banque des Territoires is committed to working alongside water stakeholders who wish to develop sustainable approaches that guarantee a reliable and safe water supply.
A significant need for investment to renew water infrastructure
A French household consumes an average of 146 litres of drinking water every day¹. Access to it may seem obvious… yet it is becoming increasingly scarce. The resource available in our territory has decreased by 14% in 20 years due to human pressure and climate change. Only 45% of water bodies are in good ecological condition according to the latest inventory shared in 2019. Due to insufficient quality, more than a hundred water catchment points are closing every year. How, then, can we improve our supply?
Talking about water management in the French territories means addressing the ‘small cycle’ (drinking water supply, wastewater treatment) and the ‘large cycle’ (de-sealing, rainwater management, aquatic environment management and flood prevention or GEMAPI) together. While the ‘large cycle’ remains under the purview of the town halls, responsibilities relating to drinking water and sanitation will be transferred to public establishments for inter-municipal cooperation (EPCI) by 1 January 2026. An administrative pooling of skills, knowledge and resources which, backed more broadly at the basin level, should favour action.
The hydraulic infrastructure related to the small cycle now accounts for 40% of the assets of local authorities: half of the drinking water supply networks were laid more than 50 years ago, and they need to be renewed to limit leaks. This is urgent… The proportion of leaky networks is estimated at 20%. The regulatory requirements applicable to the quality of water intended for human consumption on the one hand and to discharges into the natural environment on the other also encourage the upgrading of treatment plants. This represents a major investment challenge for local authorities, which must develop their territory economically while protecting their resources. The additional annual investment requirement is estimated at 4.6 billion euros for drinking water, collective sanitation and rainwater! In addition to this ‘investment wall’ are rising costs (inflation, increase in the cost of energy and reagents, increase in the cost of works) and a sobriety of consumption that could effectively limit the financial contribution of the population to public services, unless the price charged per cubic metre is increased. The local authorities are therefore looking for banking partners with suitable financing, capable of supporting their ambitions in the long term.
Strengthening support for local authorities in line with the Water Plan 2023
The Banque des Territoires has long been committed to the theme of water, even before the 2019 Water Conference. Its new dedicated programme, in line with the Water Plan presented by the government in March 2023, aims to encourage sustainable and resilient management of the resource. It is increasing the financial resources allocated to local authorities (4 billion euros in loans to be mobilised by 2028) and its range of banking services.
Among the latter, Aqua Prêt supports numerous initiatives contributing to intelligent water management, including GEMAPI:
-
production, storage and distribution of drinking water;
-
treatment and reuse of treated wastewater;
-
rainwater management;
-
removal of soil sealing and irrigation of crops;
-
management of aquatic environments, restoration of watercourses and river systems;
-
prevention of flooding and submersion.
This long-term loan, backed by the Savings Fund, is indexed to the Livret A savings account with a margin of +0.40% or, for fixed-rate loans, on a monthly scale, provided by the partners, the EIB and SFIL. It can finance up to 100% of the cost of projects.
The Banque des Territoires also offers engineering tools to help structure and plan infrastructure and network projects, projects to preserve and restore aquatic environments and projects to adapt to climate change: development of master plans, multi-year investment plans, etc. 15 million euros of credit has been earmarked for the period 2024-2028.
The Banque des Territoires is also investing its own funds (up to 20 million euros) in small water cycle infrastructure, in private companies or in local public enterprises (semi-public companies (SEM) and single-purpose semi-public companies (SEMOP)). It is also securing certain plots of land through its deposit offer.
The aquagir.fr platform (External link, new window), which will go online in July 2023 thanks to the Banque des Territoires and its partners the association of elected basin representatives (ANEB), the BRGM, the French Water Circle (CFE), the water competitiveness clusters (Aqua-Valley and Aquanova) and the Union des industriels et entreprises de l’eau (UIE, Union of Water Industry Professionals and Companies), aims to provide end-to-end support for local authority projects. It offers resources (tools, expert articles, etc.), extensive feedback, a marketplace for solutions and a search engine for water funding. The aggregation of services offered by more than 300 water stakeholders identified in June 2024, including local and rapidly deployable solutions, can greatly facilitate decision-making and action!