Le principe de solidarité dans les politiques françaises de l’eau : originalité, fonctionnement et fragilités

Abstract

To address the degradation of water quality in France, legislators established innovative mechanisms for autonomous water management in 1964, specifically the creation of agencies and basin committees, organized according to hydrographic basins. Over the subsequent fifty years, French legislation followed by European directives have cultivated a distinctive solidarity in environmental policies, operating across three dimensions : hydrographic, financial, and territorial. This article explores the uniqueness of this solidarity and its development, leveraging the evolution of regulations and analyzing the functioning of agencies and basin committees as their mandates expanded. The recent national acknowledgment of quantitative pressure on water resources, manifested in 2023 through the adoption of 53 measures aimed at resilient and coordinated water management, reaffirms the central role of agencies and basin committees in water governance. However, this recognition follows a decade characterized by diminishing financial and technical resources, alongside a delegation of flood and environmental management responsibilities to intercommunalities, often without regard for hydrographic considerations. This article highlights the inherent risks of undermining the current pillars of solidarity in water resource management and aquatic ecosystems, particularly as the impacts of climate change heighten the necessity of this solidarity.

Keywords

• water management
• watershed
• environmental policies
• territorial governance
• France