France Publishes New Piece of Legislation to Simplify the Implementation of Water Reuse Schemes
On the 30th of March 2023, French President Marcon unveiled a new water plan for France with the ambitious objective of saving 10% of water in the country by 2030 through water reuse.
A few months later, France’s legislation has evolved with the publication of a new Decree on the uses and conditions for reuse of rainwater and treated wastewater on the 29th of August 2023 (Décret n° 2023-835). The decrees also defines the conditions for the use of rainwater, without authorisation for non-domestic uses.
This new decree, revoking Decree n° 2022-336 that was in place since March 2022, should facilitate the development and implementation of water reuse schemes in the country with a series of key measures such as:
- The revocation of a five-year experimental period for reuse projects;
- The abrogation of geographical constraints on the reuse of treated wastewater (e.g. recycled water produced in a department can be reused in neighbouring department);
- A simplification of applications procedures;
- A simplification of projects monitoring by authorities;
- Reusing treated wastewater from a wastewater treatment plant is no longer limited by the quality of the sludge produced by that plant.
The decree’s full text (in French) can be accessed in the Official Journal of the French Republic at: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000048007367
Photo by Sébastien Ramage on Unsplash
