Water Abstractions in France: Organization and Regionalisation Perspectives

1. Water abstractions in France Organization, regionalisation A. Dubois (IFEN)

2. Water administration • Water management organized/improved by different successive laws in France (1964, 1992 and 2006) • Water management • delegated to 6 Water Agencies • Coordination by ministry for environment • Standardization (data, concepts) by SANDRE • Data dictionary • Model of database… • ! Recent and on progress work Artois-Picardie Rhin-Meuse Seine-Normandie Loire-Bretagne Adour-Garonne Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse

3. Abstractions organization • Who is concerned ? • All activities that abstract water (except for some particular uses as geothermal energy) • Water abstractions subjected to: • Administrative authorization • Annual taxes • Annual taxes enable to have historic data of the water abstractions

4. Abstractions organization • How ? • Definition of a water abstraction point • Main user = taxpayer • Watermeter or fixed estimation volume (flat rate) • What and when ? • The main user has to keep monthly data in case of control • Obligation to declare the annual abstracted volume (in April for the previous year) to the Water Agency • Obligation to declare and pay taxes if volumes • > 7000 m3 -if protected areas- • otherwise > 10 000 m3

5. Consequences • Data are provided by 6 Water Agencies :

6. Data issues • Heteregeneous data: • Loire-Bretagne: • 12 different concepts of resource between surface and groundwater • 8 methods of volume estimation/counting • Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse: • 31 different categories of uses • 35 methods to estimate the volume • particular methods for irrigation • Others Agencies: • 2 resources (surface or groundwater) • 4 uses • Volume estimated or counted

7. Data issues • Historical habits: • Rhin-Meuse: only estimation for agriculture (flat rate) • Traditional irrigation practises in the basin Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse • Aggregation according to a typology to define: • Resource: groundwater or surface water ? • Main use: 4 categories • Public water supply • Industry • Agriculture (mainly irrigation) • Energy: production of electricity • Part of the estimated volume compared to measurement

8. Some results • Example in 2002: Total France : 5 966 millions m 3 90% measured Total France : 3 575 millions m 3 87% measured

9. Some results • Example in 2002: • Pb with representativity of abstractions for agriculture • 3 060 millions m3

10. Data control and correction • Decision in 2004 to correct abstractions for agriculture: • Based upon the irrigated surface declared by the water abstractors and collected by the Water Agency surfwater_agency • Comparison with the declared irrigated surface to the Min. of Agriculture surfmin_agri • If surfwater_agency<surfmin_agri estimation of the real abstracted volume • Vol=Volwater_agency+(surfmin_agri-surfwater_agency)*rate • Rate depends on type of irrigation some historical practises are more water consumptive • Only possible: • at administrative scale (not river basin district) • since 2000

11. Impact of the correction • Importance of the correction: • Methodology achieved with close cooperation of the Water Agencies • At the same time, help program led by Water Agencies to equip farmers with water meters • Improvement of the representativity of the data, decrease of the part estimated

12. Regional data per sector in 2004 • Annual abstractions calculated at administrative department and regions Abstractions in 2004 public water supply 6 018 mio m3 Industry 3286 mio m 3

13. Regional data per sector in 2004 Abstractions in 2004 energy 19262 mio m3 agriculture/irrigation 5148 mio m3

14. Abstractions by sources Both: Agriculture: minor Public water supply: major part in groundwater Differences: Part of the industry and Energy in Rhin-Meuse * Data not corrected for agriculture

15. Abstractions by sources Both: Public water supply: shared between sources Agriculture: More significant Differences: Part of the industry in Adour Garonne and energy in Loire-Bretagne * Data not corrected for agriculture

16. Abstractions by sources Both: Public water supply: Important abstractions Differences: Part of the energy and agriculture in Rhône-Méd Agriculture: nearly only surface water * Data not corrected for agriculture

17. Perspectives • Part of the estimated/flat rate volume decreasing • More and more representative data • Correction may become no longer necessary • Abstractions evaluation may be possible at river basin district level in the future (probably since 2005 data) • Better homogeneity of the data • standardization of the concepts thanks to the work of SANDRE (www.eaufrance.sandre.fr) • Data dictionary • Better description of the water abstraction point: more and more precise coordinates

18. Perspectives • Definition of 11 main uses shared by the Water Agencies: • Agriculture (stock breeding) • Irrigation • Industry • Public water supply • Energy • Sporting and leisure activities • Bottling up • Hydrotherapy • Fire defence • Depollution • Artificial aquifer recharge • Data collecting to improve: pb of availibility, timeliness

19. Thank You ! Available data on French water abstractions on the website: www.ifen.fr Data on water availability on the web site: www.eaufrance.fr