By André Flajolet
Member of Parliament representing Pas-de-Calais, Chairman of the National Water Committee

The word “governance” is central in all prospective concerning water and assessment. There are three kinds of governance: management governance, governance by sharing, and governance of relations among countries through water.

Governance of the management of the resource and its relationship to the environment.
Water cannot be disassociated from the environment from which it is taken, and man acts on that environment. That is why a French 2006 Law is called the “Water and Aquatic Environments Law (LEMA).” Achievements in terms of professionalizing the tools and the teams must be pursued, and the principle of costs avoided must be taken into account. By failing to invest, we sometimes create more problems than solutions. The importance of being familiar with existing networks is pointed out in LEMA and the Grenelle Law (i.e : the Framework law on France’s environmental strategy that was voted after a year of a multi-stakeholder consultation process).
The relationship between urban and rural areas is essential but it is not yet complete. Governance by the territories is not sufficiently emphasized by the water management and hydrological basin schemes. There is still an enormous amount to do in this area before giving any lessons to other countries. One of the urgent matters for our water management is to create or to consolidate coherent spaces, in the form of hydrographic basins where urban and rural areas meet. In my Department of Pas-de-Calais, reaching 35% of water bodies in accordance with the Water Framework Directive (WFD) would already be an honorable grade. Reaching 70% is not in the realm of possibility.

Governance by sharing
The relationship between the available space on the planet, the ability to feed people and to respect the earth poses a real problem. In World Forums in Mexico City or Istanbul, we meet representatives from African and Middle Eastern countries where each person has three liters of water a day to survive. Some people have 30 liters, but that is nothing compared to a steak that alone needs 3,500 liters of water. Dwindling resources will perhaps make us change our own eating habits in order to achieve equilibrium between man and his environment.
One could say that water has neither a price nor a cost, but that water services have a cost and a price. In some areas of my region, the price of water is fairly low, but behind that price are hidden a 40% return on the network and a lack of collective or individual sanitation. Our relationship to water is both natural and societal. We have to learn to reduce consumption, as manufacturers, farmers or individuals. The Water Agencies created in 1964 have been instrumental in considerable reductions in the use of water by industry and a notable improvement in water meter readings. Even though we have water, we cannot continue to consume it carelessly. We also have to worry about our neighbor who has none, and nurture a feeling of solidarity tying consumers to regions. If the resource is not protected in the countryside, the cities will not have enough water. We have to share the resource along with the constraints and costs related to its preservation.
Governance must be improved by sharing knowledge among consumers, associations, manufacturers, farmers and individuals. Everyone must understand the technical and financial challenges posed by water management. In LEMA, the threshold for creating a public service water advisory coalition was lowered to a population of 20,000. I believe in shared governance, but this does not exempt an elected official from his or her decision-making obligations because at the end, he or she is the only person accountable to the people.

Governance of the relationship between States and regions
Water has no borders. Around the Mediterranean Basin, issues are being raised as to the future of the population in those areas and what will become of the peace among the countries.
Even though we are used to criticizing our leaders and what they do, we must recognize that in the area of water, we are global experts from the standpoint of technologies, transferring know-how and the opportunity for access to water.
That is why we must talk both about water and sharing the water, and about the hydroelectricity and its consequences on the natural environment, on agricultural environments and on the people located downstream.
It is up to us to send these political messages, even though they are not necessarily easy to accept. It is our duty to continue to be innovative in the area of water and aquatic environments.