Chapter 2

Paris celebrates a decade of public
water success
By Célia BlauelA decade ago, the municipality of Paris decided to take water managementback into public hands. This decision in a global city like the capital ofFrance had a worldwide impact. It ended a long period of fragmented andopaque organisation by a joint venture in charge of water production andby two private corporations in charge of water distribution since the mid1980s. That structure had diluted accountability and meant continuously
rising water tariffs. Remunicipalisation of water has resulted in a diverse,
democratically elected board, tariffs dropping by eight per cent, 1,200
drinking water fountains installed across the city, and support for people
who are struggling to pay their water, energy and housing bills.

A bold political statement
Eau de Paris provides its three million users with high quality water, 24/7,
all year round. Since its inception in 2009, the public company’s vision has
extended far beyond industrial matters of water production, distribution,
treatment and infrastructure. Water is not another commodity but rather
a vital common good of humanity and should be managed as such, guided
solely by the public interest.
Freed from shareholder pressure and from the constant drive for shortterm returns on investment and dividend payments, public managementof water guarantees that all revenues are reinvested in the service andthat decisions are based on a long-term approach, with the best interestof present and future generations in mind.

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Paris celebrates a decade of public water successIn this respect, Eau de Paris bears strong values that are not marketinglabels but inspire every single daily action. Among these values, the city
wanted Eau de Paris to be a flagship of transparency. This was achievedby providing open access to all key information on the water service,including the financial statements, as well as through genuine democraticcontrol.
The board of Eau de Paris is made up of elected municipal officials andstaff representatives, as well as representatives of non-governmentalorganisations (NGOs) advocating for water users and the environment.
This open governance enables political and citizen oversight of thecompany’s activities and decisions.
In 2017, Eau de Paris was awarded the prestigious United Nations
Public Service Award in recognition of its daily work in the areas ofaccountability, transparency and integrity. In the years to come, Eau deParis plans to renew its commitment to public participation and to allow
citizens to take part in the public company’s decision-making through aparticipatory budget.

A sound, practical decision
Eau de Paris was born out of the will of the municipal council to directly
control the drinking water service through a single publicly owned andcontrolled operator that would comply with the highest standards ofefficiency. By integrating every step of the water supply chain, fromwater catchment to service delivery to end users, Eau de Paris is able tomanage the system as a whole. This allows for economies of scale, a more
resilient system as well as full control and accountability.
A decade after remunicipalisation, Eau de Paris’s top-of-its-classindustrial and economic performance blatantly contradicts the naysayers
who predicted failure when the city decided not to renew its contracts

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Paris celebrates a decade of public water successwith Veolia and Suez in 2008, and instead created a new public operator.
A few figures illustrate the public operator’s capacity to run the water
service efficiently in this major metropolis: the network yield is above 90
per cent (10 points over the national average for unaccounted-for water),and water quality is excellent, with a 100 per cent rate of compliance fortwo consecutive years in 2017 and 2018. This unprecedented performance
was made possible by the expertise of the Eau de Paris team and theconstant supervision and adaption of processes and treatments to meet
evolving public health standards.
As a public service provider dedicated to upholding our commitment
to a controlled and affordable water price, Eau de Paris bases its
investment strategy on a rigorous analysis of investment needs. This
helps maintain the lowest cost for users and supports sustainability by
reducing the service’s environmental footprint. Following the same logic,innovation must be both a creator of value and a source of long-termsavings. Our investment strategy has three successive stages: research,experimentation and scale-up. Over €75 million is invested each year,
almost entirely self-financed. This is a high but sound level. Eau de Paris
refuses investments that are oversized in relation to real needs. Preferring
evolution rather than revolution, we build upon our exceptional hydraulicheritage. Innovation is also about inventing ways to maintain and adapt
century-old infrastructure to our current needs.

Solidarity and responsibility
Universal, affordable access to drinking water for all is part of our DNA
at Eau de Paris. As such, one of the board’s first decisions when Eaude Paris was founded was to lower water prices by 8 per cent. It waspresented as a way to give back to the people part of the profits thatprivate operators were making on the water service but also as a sign thatpublic management really means affordability for everyone. Since then,there has been strict oversight of water rates. In 2020, rates remain lower

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Paris celebrates a decade of public water successthan before remunicipalisation and are still the lowest in the greater
Paris area at €1.07 per cubic meter.
The public company also contributes €500,000 annually to the Fonds
de solidarité pour le logement de Paris, a fund that helps households
struggling to meet their housing expenses, including recurring costs suchas energy and water.
Raising awareness within all sectors of society about responsible water
use is part of the same commitment to universal, affordable drinking
water. We place a strong focus on children and youth, as well as on social
care professionals who can do broad public outreach, especially withpeople who are economically disadvantaged. Through our trademark‘Water ambassadors’ programme we reach out to poorer households andhelp them conserve water and tackle leaks while promoting the use of tap
water as a safe and cheap choice. This strategy allows us to address the factthat people living on low incomes also have the lowest level of trust in thewater service and spend the most on bottled water. Eau de Paris also works
specifically with refugees and homeless people through partnerships
with NGOs and participation in social welfare schemes developed at thelocal level. We have installed temporary drinking fountains near refugee
camps and NGOs have distributed maps of the fountains and reusable
water bottles. Eau de Paris’s contribution to providing migrants withemergency access to water during recent heatwaves has been praised bypublic authorities and NGOs caring for the needs of this population livingin extreme conditions.
For the last 10 years, Eau de Paris has maintained and even stepped up
its actions to promote access to water in public spaces. The company
manages more than 1,200 drinking fountains today. This probably makes
Paris the world’s best-equipped city in terms of free access to water inpublic spaces and helps to reduce plastic water bottle consumption. In
2016, the public company also helped implement the city’s participatory50

Paris celebrates a decade of public water successbudget1 by installing 41 new fountains, including 11 that distributesparkling water. During winter, about 80 drinking fountains remain inoperation.

The drinking water fountain in front of the Eau de Paris office. Photo by Satoko Kishimoto

Adaptation to climate change, catchment protection,
biodiversity and green transition
Being responsible means thinking globally. As such, Eau de Paris iscommitted to reducing the social and ecological footprint of its waterproduction and distribution activities. Water is a common resource of vitalimportance and, as a public company committed to source-to-tap water
management and to fulfilling economic as much as social mandates, Eaude Paris gathers and fosters in-house expertise and innovation. This
allows us to adapt continuously to the new needs and challenges of thesmart sustainable city as well as to the effects of climate change. Climate51

Paris celebrates a decade of public water successdisruption forces us to anticipate its potential impacts on water resourcesin terms of quantity and quality but also on water demand and needs indense urban areas. These impacts include possible hydric stress increase(when water levels drop in rivers and water basins), frequent periodsof drought, average temperature hikes, as well as urban heat islands indense urban areas where stone buildings tend to absorb and accumulate
heat. By acting beyond its core industrial business to help make Parisand the greater Parisian area resilient and sustainable, Eau de Paris iscommitted to contributing to public urban and environmental policies.
Notably, Eau de Paris is a pioneer in water catchment protection policies.
Protecting underground and river water resources improves the qualityof water resources and preserves the landscape and our common natural
heritage. Farming has an impact on the aquatic environment whenit comes to quality and quantity, as well as biodiversity. As part of its
resource protection policy, Eau de Paris partners with local stakeholders
and the Basin Agency (a public entity that manages water with all thestakeholders at the watershed level), to foster more responsible water
management by helping redirect farming methods towards a moresustainable and environmentally friendly model. For example, Eau deParis buys farmland and makes it available to farmers through cheap
rural environmental leases. In exchange, the farmers agree to use organicand sustainable farming methods. This medium and long-term approachallows Eau de Paris to improve source water quality, which will reducethe cost and environmental impact of its treatment.
As part of its biodiversity policy, Eau de Paris adapts its maintenancepractices to the environmental realities of each site, with the help ofpartner naturalist associations. The areas surrounding water catchments,
aqueducts and reservoir roofs are home to a rich and varied fauna andflora. Eau de Paris also works with the City of Paris on projects that
support urban agriculture, the greening of buildings, and the developmentof biodiversity and nature in urban areas.

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Paris celebrates a decade of public water success

Not least, as a major player in the energy transition in the Île-de-Franceregion, Eau de Paris has set high goals for itself with a plan that calls for
reductions in the climate and energy impact of its activities. By the end of
the year 2020, the company aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions
by 15 per cent and its energy consumption by 12 per cent and increase its
use of renewable energy to 95 per cent of overall energy consumed. Thecompany is also helping reduce CO2 emissions by producing renewableenergy using 11,000 m2 of photovoltaic panels that generated 17,500 MWhof power in 2018, as well as geothermal generation that produced 15,100
MWh.2

An exceptional heritage
Eau de Paris integrates enhancement of existing systems into its approach
to innovation, using it as an opportunity to define new possibilities basedon the resources and infrastructure available. The non-potable water
network, a feature specific to Paris, is a mid-nineteenth century legacy ofBaron Haussmann’s major public works. This second network means thatin Paris, the water quality level can be adapted to different uses: drinking
water for human consumption and non-potable water for municipal(e.g. watering green spaces, cleaning streets, flushing sewers) or othercollective uses (e.g. cleaning the common areas of buildings).
Eau de Paris promotes non-potable water use when appropriate to limit
the impact on water resources. This is ecologically wise: non-potablewater needs not undergo purification treatment so it does not requirechemicals at production, which also requires less energy and is cheaper.
This network is also being used to experiment with heating and cooling ofbuildings. Non-potable water is circulated through a plate heat exchanger
to capture either its heating or cooling properties and is then returned to
the non-potable water network. This technique provides air conditioning
for three Parisian buildings, including City Hall.

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Paris celebrates a decade of public water successConclusion
As the leading public drinking water company in France, Eau de Paris
distinguishes itself with its unique supply scheme, its presence as a
Paris-based utility that owns and operates installations across a wide
geographic area, and its exceptional hydraulic and industrial heritage.
Since its creation, the company has mobilised its internal and intersectoral expertise and its strong industrial performance to provide
sustainable and shared solutions, always ensuring that technology andinnovation are at the service of the well-being of Parisians.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Célia Blauel is President of Eau deParis and Deputy Mayor of Paris incharge of the environment, sustainable
development, water and the energy–
climate plan.

Endnotes
1

https://budgetparticipatif.paris.fr/bp/jsp/site/Portal.jsp?document_id=1990&portlet_id=1582

http://www.eaudeparis.fr/uploads/tx_edpevents/EDP_RA2018.pdf

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