In Bordeaux and Lyon, the water boards become public after a tedious process

From 1er January 2023, the metropolises of Bordeaux and Lyon regain control of water management, after a tedious transition from the private sector to public management. The two local authorities piloted a complex process for two years, accompanied by intense social negotiations, to succeed in integrating all the professions linked to the distribution of water. Capture, network monitoring, invoicing, customer relations, it was necessary to rebuild a complete administrative architecture, based on a private model rooted in a long local history.

In Bordeaux, since the era of Jacques Chaban-Delmas (mayor of the city from 1947 to 1995), water has been for more than thirty years the business of Lyonnaise des eaux, then of its heiress Suez. A project of passage in management, envisaged in 2014 by the previous socialist majority, had not succeeded. In Lyon, the private period is part of an older history, which dates back to the creation of the Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE) in 1853, which Véolia took over. In both metropolises, the new majorities, elected in 2020, wanted to make the creation of public water management an important marker of their mandates.

“We must regain control of a common good, a vital, essential good. It is not a commercial good and it must be managed by a public utility,” says Sylvie Cassou-Schotte, vice-president (Europe Ecology-Les Verts, EELV) of the metropolis of Bordeaux, in charge of water and sanitation. For the Bordeaux elected official, the new management falls under a “ethical, ecological, political and financial choice”. In Lyon, Anne Grosperrin shares the same desire “to regain technical control of a vital common good”. For the vice-president (EELV) of the Lyon metropolitan area, in charge of water and sanitation, “Users were too far removed from the major urban water cycle. We must collectively reclaim an essential skill to face the crises that await us”.

Create dedicated services

In Bordeaux as in Lyon, the transformation of the public service delegation (DSP) into metropolitan public management required a review of all the activities of private companies, to include them in a public scheme. Where large groups such as Suez and Veolia could pool resources, it was necessary to create dedicated services within communities, or seek specific service providers. “It took a lot of work for us. We had to pass 300 public contracts to structure the board like a company, with its leaders, its management style, taking into account the employment framework of employees who come from a different corporate culture,” explains Sylvie Cassou-Schotte, who will chair the new Bordeaux management, with its 400 employees and its annual budget of 100 million. In Lyon, the metropolitan water authority will have 350 employees, for an annual budget of 122 million euros. The metropolis of Lyon has integrated 280 Véolia employees, transferred 20 agents from the community to the management, and recruited 50 additional employees, in particular to provide the computer and telephone platforms for relations with users.

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