French General Code of Local Authorities
In forcePublic water and sanitation utilities are authorised to implement social measures designed to make effective the right of access to drinking water and sanitation under conditions that are economically acceptable to all, as set out in article L. 210-1 of the Environment Code. These measures may include setting tariffs that take account of household composition or income, granting assistance with the payment of water bills, assistance with access to water or support and measures to encourage water saving. These measures may also include the definition of incentive tariffs based on the quantity of water consumed. The incentive component is in addition to a fixed component determined in accordance with standard pricing procedures.
>The incentive component is determined in accordance with standard pricing procedures.
By way of derogation from the first paragraph of article L. 2224-2 of the present code, the municipalities and their groupings implementing these measures may contribute to their financing by covering in their own budget all or part of the expenditure provided for this purpose by the public water and sanitation services, up to a limit of 2% of the amounts, excluding tax, of the water or sanitation charges collected, including expenditure relating to the allocation of a subsidy to the housing solidarity fund provided for in article L. 2224-12-3-1. A payment may be made in this respect to communal or inter-communal social action centres.
As part of the definition of tariffs or the allocation of aid for the payment of water bills taking into account the particular difficulties of the household, if the beneficiary of social measures in favour of access to water does not directly receive a water bill in his name, the lessors and co-ownership associations will draw up an agreement to define the procedures for collecting the aid.
The social security organisations and those responsible for the payment of water bills will be informed of the terms of the agreement.
Social security bodies and those responsible for managing housing assistance and social assistance provide the departments responsible for implementing these measures with the data required to identify households benefiting from social measures aimed at making the right to access drinking water and sanitation effective, with the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés being consulted beforehand in application of law no. 78-17 of 6 January 1978 relating to information technology, files and freedoms.
