Since the decentralization laws of March 1982 and January 1983, the role of the State has been limited to water law enforcement (withdrawal and discharge authorizations), and to guarantee public health and safety.

Thus, in France, communities take charge of organizing potable water supply and storm and waste water collection and treatment either by themselves or by regrouping within syndicates.

There are 15,244 water supply services and 11,992 sanitation services for 36,763 communities.

The management of the service is carried out:

either directly by the community itself, under the supervision of its Mayor and Municipal Council, elected by the inhabitants by way of direct universal suffrage;

or by a syndicate regrouping communities and managed by a President and a Committee composed of delegates from the communities.

Such syndicates regrouping communities may be:

either a single-purpose syndicate (an intercommunity syndicate for potable water supply or sanitation ...);

or a multi-purpose syndicate such as a community of communities, a multi-purpose intercommunity syndicate (SIVOM), that is simultaneously responsible for several public services (potable water supply, sanitation, household refuse collection, electrification, transport, education, swimming pools ...).

Local communities may, either entrust the management of their water supply services to a specialized private company or directly manage them by way of a Water Authority.

The Municipal Council or the Syndicate makes this choice after a preliminary study of alternatives and terms of references while taking the local context into account.

In France, the private sector has developed a remarkable "industry", that relies on the wide experience acquired by water suppliers in all tasks concerned with the management of services in synergy with the technical services of the State and communities. It has acquired know-how and has carried out research that place it at the leading edge for all integrated functions necessary to ensure potable water supply and storm and waste water collection and treatment.

� DELEGATE MANAGEMENT

This "delegated management" system has been proven in France for more than a century.

In France today, the majority of potable water supply, as compared to the number of users covered, is implemented through delegated management ( 75%). The part of sanitation services entrusted to private companies is rapidly increasing (> 35 %).

When a community decides to require the services of a private supplier, it will be within a multiannual contract defining the terms of references of the expected services and the water price to be paid by the users as well as price variations, and, in case of "affermage", the part paid back by the leaseholder to the municipality for investments.

There are models of contracts that can guide communities in preparing specifications for the invitations to tender launched for choosing the service provider.

Within a concession agreement, the future concessionaire must estimate the investments to be made at the beginning and during the contract period.

The duration of a concession agreement may vary from 20 to 50 years, depending on the amount of investments to be made, water consumption and price, while an "affermage" contract lasts from 5 to 20 years.

This approach guarantees performance standards with precise contractual obligations and fairly distributes the risks to be taken among the partners.

‚ DIRECT MANAGEMENT BY A WATER AUTHORITY

The community, or an intercommunity syndicate of which it becomes a member, takes complete charge of investments for and operation of water supply services, of the relations with users, invoicing and recovery, generally through a municipal collector.

The staff of the water authority is composed of municipal agents with a civil servant status.

Today, except in some medium and large towns that have set up their own technical municipal services, water authorities are found in small rural communities.

ƒMIXED MANAGEMENT

There are, of course, a lot of intermediate possibilities between direct and delegated management which prove the flexibility of the system.

For instance, communities can decide to operate potable water production and intakes by themselves as water authorities and delegate water supply to private companies.

Another example, the commercial aspect, i.e. relations with users (invoicing and recovery) is more and more entrusted to the private sector.

In case of a concession, the private partner finds the necessary funds that are not covered by public assistance.

In the other cases (affermage, public authorities, leases ...), municipalities or groups of communities must gather the funds necessary to build and rehabilitate the installations they own.

To meet the increasing demands of the users and comply with the new European and national standards, new installations must be built, maintained, modernized and managed. This means a cost that the users must accept to bear.

Public services for water supply and sanitation are of an industrial and commercial nature: they must balance their budget regarding income and expenditure, whatever the management method chosen, either in concession and affermage, or in water authority.

This budget includes: repayment of loans and bank interests, operation and management costs, maintenance and repair costs, the cost of technical depreciation of installations to rehabilitate them when they become out-dated and decayed.

Particular attention must be paid to operation. Technologies are becoming complex and require a well-trained technical and administrative personnel that must be used to frequent controls and a have a thorough knowledge of installations.

Personnel cost is the first expenditure item of water supply services, amounting to more than 38 % of overall costs (that is 55 % of operating costs), an item superior to that of investments which only represent 30 % of the grand total.

‚ RESPONSIBLE USERS

Service cost must be paid by the users.

The invoice is based on the consumption measured by meters.

The user must also pay "a connection price" and bear the cost of the works required by an individual connection.

Subsidiary charges entered in the invoice are levied on behalf of Water Agencies and the National Fund for Rural Water Supply. A VAT cost is added depending on the community choice.

Special conditions may be laid down for large consumers and stockbreeders.

There are as many water prices as water supply and sanitation services. In some departments, various forms of cross subsidies can mitigate variations between communities. But everyone agrees that a single water tariff would be contrary to efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

The part paid out of the household budget for water supply services remains marginal and the price per m3 consumed paid for potable water supply and sanitation is not, on the average, more expensive than a pack of cigarettes, two litres of super-petrol or than a "Coke" in a bar!