It was a long-awaited meeting, after a scorching summer and a winter during which rainfall was scarce. Thursday, March 30, Emmanuel Macron presented his "sobriety plan on the water", in the Hautes-Alpes. The objective is to anticipate the effects of climate change, the head of state saying he fears "situations of great stress next summer" in certain municipalities.
In front of the Serre-Ponçon lake, he called for the mobilization of everyone, citing "energy, industry, tourism, leisure, agriculture", before announcing the establishment of a " ÉcoWatt de l'eau", on the model of the instrument set up to reduce electricity consumption during the winter "which will make it possible to empower everyone".
"We have decided to launch 1,000 projects in five years to recycle and reuse water" and, "ultimately, we want to reuse 300 million cubic meters, or 3 Olympic swimming pools per municipality [...] or 3,500 bottles of water per Frenchman per year,” he continued. If today only 1% of wastewater is reused, the objective is to increase this figure to 10%.
In order to deter excessive use, Emmanuel Macron also revealed his desire to generalize the "progressive pricing" of water, experienced in certain territories since 2017. But "that does not mean that the price of water will increase. It is also, today, in the average when you look at the price of water in France ”. And the president explains: "The first cubic meters are invoiced at a modest price, close to the cost price. It corresponds to the water we all need for drinking, bathing and carrying out daily domestic uses. Then, beyond a certain level, the price per cubic meter will be higher and this is normal for what I would call comfort consumption and to encourage sobriety. »
The President then addressed the fight "against leaks" and the modernization of networks. To do this, he announced that he would put on the table "180 million euros to deal as a priority with 2,000 fragile municipalities, those which are in the most critical situations, as well as what have been called the 170 black spots which are identified , i.e. municipalities that lose more than 50% of the water".
Five days after the violent clashes between the police and demonstrators in Sainte-Soline over mega-basins, these reservoirs pumping water from groundwater during the winter so that farmers can water their crops in the winter. summer, the president defended the usefulness of these works. But he proposed that the next reservoirs take better account of the scarcity of water linked to climate change, and that they be conditioned on "significant changes in practice", starting with water savings and a reduction in the use of pesticides by farmers. The goal is not to “privatize water. Or allow some to appropriate it,” he said.
Finally, Emmanuel Macron addressed the water agencies, which finance a large part of the projects intended to better manage, preserve or reuse water resources. He announced the increase of "500 million euros" per year of their budget, amounting today to 2.2 billion euros.
