Sanitation at the Intersection of Public Policy of Soil and Water

"Sanitation at the Intersection of Public Policy of Soil and Water, under the Guidance of Users. The GESSOL Program." Mister. Olivier FOUCHER-GROBLA.

Toward a Rehabilitation of Non-Collective Sanitation (NCS) in France?

The management of non-collective domestic wastewater exist since a long time. But town’s development and rural desertification introduce a new way of managing them: it’s the collective management. The NCS was therefore destined to disappear however the NCS still exists and concerns more and more people.

Mister Olivier FOUCHE-GROBLA presented wastewater management methods, and he focused more particularly on non-collective sanitation (NCS).

The NCS depends more or less on the ground according to the technique field used. So it is necessary to know the main services provided by the ecosystem functions of soil. The 2000 studies have described its functions (purification, filtration, draining) and it has allowed an improvement on their use.

In France a new policy has restored NCS public policy. It is the second law on water (1992) which transposes into the French right a European directive and creates a new public service dedicated to the sanitation of the collective water (SMAC). In 1992, the state has transferred to municipalities the competence of quality control of the NCS. After this, a trial and an error on the regulation of these NCS was found out, with a deadline in 2012. At that time all households which are depending on this type of wastewater management should have be monitored. The result was a high heterogeneity of application and a questioning on the legitimacy of this policy and its cost from inhabitants. Nevertheless, the concerned people are now aware of their role and responsibility that has been given by the state.

The link between this intervention and the theme of the conference is the emergence of a new market: the home clean up equipment. It could promote the circular economy by enhancing materials considered as waste, therefore, the vulnerability of natural resources such as water or sand would be taking into account. Which will allow the transformation or the creation of jobs. For example, to assess the feasibility of the NCS we must have indicators on land and the users’ abilities to manage the devices that can be installed at home.