Abstract
With an historical overview of the legislative and regulatory framework of water pricing in France, this chapter first describes how the focus of pricing policy progressively shifted from budget balancing to water conservation then to social protection. The next part focuses on pricing practices in the urban sector. Price levels and the evolution of tariff structures are analyzed using surveys and case studies results. The fourth section focuses on water pricing in the agricultural sector at different scales: large public irrigation schemes, smaller water user associations, and individual irrigation systems. The evolution of water abstraction fees collected by river-basin authorities is also analyzed, and we present how these fees can be modulated depending on the degree of collective management of agricultural water resources. To conclude, we discuss the efficiency of water pricing in urban and irrigation sectors and highlight some limits to take into account several uses.
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- 1.
The département is an administrative division created after the French Revolution. Territorial state services at this level are led by a prefect. There are also elected representatives who form the Conseil Général. This institution has gained in importance since decentralization laws of 1982–1983.
- 2.
Initially farmers were protected and they only paid the abstraction levy when they pumped important amounts of surface water. They did not pay any tax for diffuse pollution discharge. Only later a taxation of battery cattle breeding would be introduced, but quite painfully.
- 3.
Since the initial water agencies were lightweight institutions, in the beginning they did not target villages below 500 inhabitants, which additionally had no sewer systems.
- 4.
French acronym for master plan at hydrographic district level: Schéma Directeur d’Aménagement et de Gestion des Eaux.
- 5.
Farmers choose their contract (normal versus supplemental—five years versus one year) according to field characteristics, cropping pattern, and irrigation equipment.
- 6.
Abstracts from Rule 57—Article L. 2224-12-4: I. Each water bill includes a sum depending on the consumed volume and can also include a fixed part taking into account water management fixed costs and the characteristics of the connection pipe (in particular the number of served flats. This fixed part cannot exceed a ceiling defined by a Ministerial Order. […] In case of abundant resource water and of restricted connected users, a flat rate structure can be implemented. […] III. From January 1, 2010, declining rates are forbidden, except in case of abundant resource water. IV. Seasonal water tariffs can be defined in districts facing seasonal water scarcity. […].
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank all the respondents to the urban water pricing survey conducted in 2013. Many thanks also to Daniel Lepercq (CACG), Céline Geoffroy (SCP), and Eric Belluau (BRL) for their help in understanding historical and current water pricing structures implemented in regional development companies.
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Montginoul, M., Loubier, S., Barraqué, B., Agenais, AL. (2015). Water Pricing in France: Toward More Incentives to Conserve Water. In: Dinar, A., Pochat, V., Albiac-Murillo, J. (eds) Water Pricing Experiences and Innovations. Global Issues in Water Policy, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16465-6_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16465-6_8
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