Find the new article The Conversation by Stéphane Saussier, Professor and Justine Le Floch, PhD student at the Sorbonne Business School as well as Mehdi Guelmamen, PhD student and Alexandre Mayol, HDR Senior Lecturer at the University of Lorraine.
After the droughts of 2022 and 2023, the availability of drinking water in France is no longer a given. The economic model for water distribution, devised at a time when the resource seemed infinite, needs to be rethought. Pricing, on the one hand, and operation, on the other, are at the heart of the reflections to be conducted.
France, long spared from water stress thanks to a temperate climate, is now discovering the scarcity of drinking water, as the droughts of 2022 and 2023 testify. These extreme episodes struck a chord: 343 communes had to be supplied with emergency water by tanker trucks, and 90% of départements were subject to water use restrictions. In 2023, the government launched a "Water Plan" to anticipate shortages and encourage more responsible use of the resource.
The challenge ahead is immense: ensuring sustainable access to drinking water will require massive investment and a profound adaptation of practices. What business model will meet this challenge? Two main avenues are emerging: using the price of water to encourage sobriety, and rethinking the management and financing of the drinking water service.
The right price to setIn France, the drinking water service operates as a natural monopoly: high fixed costs (maintenance of distribution networks, pumping stations and treatment plants) make any competitive tendering ineffective. Management of the service is entrusted to local authorities, who can choose between at least two organizational modes: public management or delegation to a private operator.