- In 2018, the mayor LR of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, undertook to offer its inhabitants the cheapest water in France among the cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants.
- With a current rate of 2.91 euros per cubic meter since March 1, 2020, the municipality prides itself on having kept its promise.
- Is this price really the cheapest among the big French cities? And how was this comparison made? 20 Minutes looked into the matter.
On the eve of the municipal elections, Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor LR of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) and candidate for his re-election, does not fail to praise a flagship measure adopted during his mandate.
"Since March 1, Toulousaines and Toulousains have benefited from the cheapest water in France! Thanks to the new water contracts, the price of water consumed, from now on, drops by 25% (2.91 euros per m3 for a family) or 120 euros per year, on average, more for our purchasing power, ”he says on his campaign site.
If this change has just come into force, it had been announced by the metropolis of Toulouse in 2018, when it undertook to lower the price of water so that its inhabitants benefit from the most advantageous price of the Hexagon for a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants. As she explained then, this change was to be made possible by the signing of a new water management contract with the company Veolia.
But is Toulouse really the city today to offer the cheapest water in France?
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To find out, we must first remember what exactly the "price of water" includes. If this is by nature free, this price includes the pricing of the various services that allow you to benefit from clean drinking water.
As the National Observatory for Water and Sanitation Services points out on its website, “the supply of drinking water and sanitation requires significant infrastructure, the construction and maintenance of which are costly: catchment, networks, drinking water production station, wastewater treatment station, etc. ”At this cost, independent of water consumption, there are“ fees and taxes due to various public bodies ”, such as 'water.
In 2014, the average price of water in France was thus “3.98 euros per cubic meter, all taxes included”, according to Eau France, the public water information service. In 2018 - the last year available on the Eau France website -, the overall price of water for a 120 m³ bill was 3.88 euros per cubic meter in Toulouse against 3.62 euros in Paris .
A forecast calculation made in 2018
The water price on March 1, 2020 was validated by the metropolitan area of Toulouse on December 13, 2018. Contacted by 20 Minutes , Pierre Trautmann, assistant to the town hall of Toulouse in charge of delegated management, explains to us how the metropolis of Toulouse has proceeded to compare its prices with those of the other big cities of France: "We are based on the classification of the prices carried out by the Center of studies and expertise on risks, environment, mobility and development ( Cerema), a public establishment which notably carries out studies on water. Since we could not guess what the price of water would be in other cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in January 2020, when we made our decision, we based ourselves on the last known prices at the time - January 1, 2017 - and we added 1.5% inflation to it. "
The statistical table used during the deliberation of the metropolis - which we were able to consult - clearly indicated, within the top three of the big cities offering the cheapest water rates, Toulouse in first position (2.78 euros per cubic meter) followed by Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) with 2.88 euros per cubic meter each.
Toulouse, Aix-en-Provence and Strasbourg in the top three
In 2020, the forecast of increase formulated by the town hall of Toulouse two years earlier proved to be rather exact since Aix-en-Provence always offers a price of water higher than hers, at 2.99 euros per cubic meter, according to the data communicated to us by the Régie des eaux du pays d'Aix.
Has the Strasbourg Eurometropolis, which was committed to reducing its price to 2.86 euros per cubic meter "by 2020", five cents less than in Toulouse, implemented this tariff? ? Contacted, the local community had not been able to respond to us before the article appeared. "It is possible that certain cities may have a lower price if the increase in prices since 2018 has not been as fast as the inflation taken into account in our calculations," recognizes Pierre Trautmann, however.
Contacted by 20 Minutes , Lucien Sanchez, president of the association Eau Secours 31, which monitors the management and use of Toulouse Métropole water, tells us for its part: "To our knowledge, this is the cheapest water price among the cities of 100,000 inhabitants in France, so there is no denying that the promise was kept at this stage, knowing that this price is provided for in the new contract - subject to ability to verify its effective application. We will have to wait six months and the first consumption statement to find out if the promise is kept - or the month of June for many municipalities near Toulouse, for which the change took place in January, "he continues.
"The full effect [of this new pricing] for the residents of Toulouse will be known in six months, the first statements in June showing three months with the old rate and three months with the new," confirms Pierre Trautmann. The new rate adopted is also guaranteed for the twelve years of delegation to Veolia provided for in the contract, since it can only be modified with the agreement of Toulouse Métropole and according to a defined indexing formula.
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- Toulouse
- Municipal
- Fake Off
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- Potable water