Régis Taisne is ready to support the bet: “In 2026 in the municipal lists, we will observe an increase in the number of candidates for the exercise of skills related to water”urges the head of the Water Cycle department at the National Federation of granting authorities and authorities (FNCCR). Despite debates which focused on the postponement of compulsory intermunicipal competence in drinking water and sanitation, behind the scenes of the congress of mayors reinforced this conviction, from November 19 to 21 in Paris.
The federation feels the depth of the movement in its own structure: “In twelve years, the number of water-related memberships has more than doubled, to reach 660. These communities represent 60 million French people, out of 68 million”Régis Taisne countdown.
Cleaning, “caricatural maladaptation”
Whether it manifests itself in drought or floods, the acceleration of climate change reinforces the renewed attractiveness of water-related skills. In both cases, the responses are organized around the slowing down of the major cycle, as detailed in the Management of stormwater runoff and runoff booklet, published by the FNCCR. The association announces for December 14 the release of the 7th and final booklet, devoted to financing.
By affirming the priority of slowing down, the association of elected officials does not hesitate to oppose the illusions of cleaning, in the process of simplification in a draft decree : “A caricatured maladaptation”, scathes Régis Taisne, recalling that a recent report from the General Inspectorate of the Environment and Sustainable Development (IGEDD) deconstructed the idea according to which the overflows come from a lack of cleaning. “The logic is to slow down, and not speed up, otherwise the downstream takes everything,” decides the head of department.
Political reappropriation
Upstream of technical solutions and the drafting of planning documents, Régis Taisne observes a desire to put politics at the center of the debate on water, including in rural communities who are mobilizing to protect their catchments and accelerate their agro-ecological transition. He sees a break there: in the history of water infrastructure, rural communities have often placed themselves in the wheels of urban locomotives, as shown, from the post-war period to the 2000s, the national fund for the development of water supply.
Political reappropriation stems in part from the enthusiasm of elected officials and the public for nature-based solutions (NBS). “ The French overwhelmingly support the greening of their city or village », notes Sandrine Potier, technical advisor responsible for rainwater and non-collective sanitation at the FNCCR. For a competitive cost, SFNs add beauty and climatic comfort to good water management.
100,000 km to disconnect
“There is never a single answer,” says Régis Taisne. Despite their financial advantage, SFNs will weigh heavily on local finances, taking into account the 100,000 km of unitary networks totaled by the French sanitation system, or a quarter of the length. The FNCCR cites the example of Greater Lyon, which estimated the cost of disconnecting its rainwater networks at €1 billion.
To progress in this direction, the new urban wastewater directive sets an ambitious objective: reducing the volumes of polluted water discharged without treatment into the natural environment to less than 2%while since a 2015 decree, France has given itself a threshold of 5%.
Growing requirement
The requirement is reinforced as the risks of network overflow will increase with global warmingas suggested by “The key figures for natural risks”, published in January by the State. Unrecorded in the 20th century, the shrinkage and swelling of clay took over from floods in 2017, as the first item of compensation dedicated to natural disasters.
The total bill has reached €50 billion over the last 40 years. Its growth endangers the insurability of territories : a file for which many hopes rest on the bill from Senator Christine Lavarde, who will participate in the FNCCR conference on rainwater, on December 3 in Paris.
Back to basics
Another hard point in the debates on floods: how to better organize solidarity from the urban and powerful downstream to the rural and deprived upstream? For the FNCCR, this question resonates as a return to basics: the association was born 90 years ago to organize the financing of rural electrification, with a tax levied in the city.
