The Rhone Mediterranean Corsica Water Agency is a public institution of the French State, under the supervision of the Ministry of Environment. Six basin-agencies were created in France in 1964, according to the country 's six major rivers, as part of a first water law that introduced two founding concepts: (1) Integrated Water Resources Management, (2) the polluter-pays principle / consumer-pays principle. The Rhone Mediterranean Corsica Water Agency territory is located downstream of Lake Geneva, on the Rhone basin and all the French rivers that flow into the Mediterranean Sea. A Water Basin Committee (a.k.a. water parliament ) made up of users, public authorities and the State, determines and votes for a six-year basin management master plan (a.k.a. SDAGE, which stands for Schéma Directeur d'Aménagement et de Gestion des Eaux in French, or master plan for water development and management). The Agency 's action then consists of implementing the multiyear action program of the master plan. The Agency collects water fees, a tax paid by all users (households, communities, industrialists, farmers, etc.) according to their consumption, diversion levy or pollution (polluter/consumer-pays principle). Each euro collected is reinvested to subsidize local authorities, industrialists, farmers and associations. The agency funds the upgrade of wastewater treatment plants, increased perimeters of protection for freshwater, water network development, water leakage reduction, protection of drinking water from pesticides and nitrate pollution, and restoration of the natural functioning of rivers and aquatic biodiversity protection.
Resource Type
Theme
Organization