We are determined to maintain access to services for the least well-off people in developed countries, as well as for people who are socially isolated or homeless. In France, the Water for All program enables each municipality to provide its own local solidarity program to all water service users. It comes in addition to social or equitable tariffs and combines three types of assistance:
- emergency solutions to maintain access to the water service via different forms of financial assistance appropriate to individual situations: staged payments, debt write-offs or water vouchers
- assistance solutions to help people manage budgets and water consumption over the long term
- prevention solutions to alert people to unusual excessive consumption.
Our approach is based on the shared responsibility of the water service's various stakeholders: municipality, operator and user. This approach enables everyone to enjoy their rights and meet their duties:
- right to assistance and equality for users of the public water service, and the duty to manage their consumption properly
- duty of the operator to provide information and effective solutions
- duty of the municipality to combat social exclusion.
In 2017, Water for All represented:
- 13,175 staged payment schedules for a total €1,358,667
- 14,509 Housing Solidarity Fund cases, equivalent to writing off debts worth €1,165,927
- over €2.5 million spent on emergency assistance via France's Housing Solidarity Fund and water vouchers or personalized aid vouchers.