France needs 15,000 million euros in five years to adapt water management to climate change, estimated Thursday the Professional Federation of Water Companies (FP2E), before the presentation of the Government’s “water plan”.
Currently, “it is estimated at around 6 billion (euros) investments in comprehensive sanitation services in France per year,” he said.
“An additional 3,000 million a year would be needed to adapt water and sanitation services to climate change,” insisted Aurélie Colas, for whom “investing in water services” is today “a priority.”
“So today we need in 5 years an additional 15,000 million euros put on the table by all the players to invest”, he summarizes, a “global” figure, which would cover “both the investments of local entities” and “of the State”. .
water map
This request comes as President Emmanuel Macron presents a long-awaited plan on Thursday aimed at improving the management of water, a resource threatened by global warming. He must implement some fifty measures to reduce waste and make better use of it.
“About time”, reacted Aurélie Colas, happy that the issue was finally “put on the political agenda” and “elevated to the highest summit of the State”. The representative of the water companies fears that France “will once again encounter tensions in the supply of drinking water” this summer.
The winter was particularly dry with a record 32 days without rain, which did not allow the groundwater tables to be replenished, which on March 1 was 80% below normal.
The Federation of Water Companies says it expects “very concrete” from the water plan.
In addition to the 15,000 million euros, he wants to break down the “administrative blocks” that exist around the “reuse of treated wastewater.”
To this end, the FP2E especially advocates for “the creation at the departmental level of a single window so that those responsible for the projects (for the reuse of wastewater) can have a single contact and expedite the examination times of these files” .
Source: BFM TV
