Management of public investment projects in the water sector

In France, local authorities, most often in the form of public establishments for inter-communal cooperation, are the entities that make investments in the water sector. In fact, by law, communes and their groupings are responsible for building and managing facilities for the supply, collection, production, potabilization, pressurization, storage and distribution of drinking water, for the collection and treatment of wastewater, and for the development, maintenance and management of rivers and aquatic environments.

These investments must be carried out in compliance with public procurement rules (public procurement code (decree no. 2006-975 of 1 ^er August 2006, see [Doc. W 9 510] )). National regulations, such as the Environment Code, the Health Code, the General Code of Local Authorities, the Labor Code, and international, European and national standards are also applicable. Finally, numerous recommendations and technical guides are available to help public purchasers better identify their needs, and to assist designers in their studies.

It is then up to the client and, where applicable, his advisors, to take all the necessary steps to build a structure that meets the technical and economic requirements set out in the contract, while also ensuring that it blends into its immediate surroundings, taking into account its social, cultural and architectural dimensions.

The combined intervention of multiple players - design offices, architects, project managers, contractors - each with a contractual link to the public purchaser, but with no contractual link between them, demands extreme clarity in their respective tasks, exemplary rigor on the part of everyone involved, and the necessary coordination, which must be permanent throughout the duration of the operation to guarantee the quality of the investment.

The procedures described here are those of the French legislative and regulatory context, analyzing the applicable texts, in particular the General Code of Local Authorities, the Environmental Code and the Public Procurement Code, themselves referring to other documents, circulars, guides and other application documents. Nevertheless, the methodological approach outlined in these guidelines means that they can be applied worldwide.

The water sector represents a considerable amount of annual investment – of the order of 6 billion euros – mobilizing public funds from water agencies, general councils and, above...