Existing Solutions

public consultation, public participation, public information

policy

- Communication

- Education

Within the framework of the development of the plan for water quality recovery on the Loire Brittany Basin, (River Basin Management Plan RBMP), the Basin Committee has been consulting the public on the important questions for water on two occasions: during the phase of inventory and on the RBMP itself, before final validation.
The Loire Brittany Water Agency mobilizes a network of actors on its territory to inform and mobilise the public around this management plan. For all this, the Agency has been giving educational tools, has been animating a network of partners, has organized exchanges and a mutualisation of teaching practices, has financially supported pilot actions, and has created a website to sensibilise the general public…

The whole of the territory of the Loire-Brittany basin, 155,000 km ², 28% of the metropolitan French territory, 10 Regions, 36 departments and more than 7300 communes for 12 million inhabitants.

The Basin  Committee is the place for the debate and the dialogue between all the actors of the water policy of the Loire-Brittany basin and is in charge of the development of the RBMP. It has thus to consult the inhabitants of the basin.
The Loire Brittany Water Agency carries the operational tasks of the consultations, each consultation  being based on partnerships with actors and local relays on the territory (local authorities, local government agencies, associations, professional syndicates…). The Water Agency also develops communication tools to support the participation in these consultations and to facilitate the participation by the inhabitants to the water management on the basin.

The schedule of such consultation is based on the RBMP’s schedule. A first consultation phase is carried out during the phase of inventory, a second one before final adoption of the RBMP.

How to associate and support the participation of the public during the development of the RBMP plan for water quality? How to collect public opinion? This solution allows: 1 – to bring the bases necessary to the comprehension of the challenges of water by all and 2 – to invite the public to give its opinion, to mobilise the public on these questions.
 

During the year 2005 consultation: 21000 people answered the consultation, 380 partners or relays were mobilised, 500 demonstrations have been organised.
In year 2008 (2nd consultation): 85000 people answered the consultation (+ 120 free contributions), 450 partners or relays were mobilised, more than 400 demonstrations have been organised. The synthesis of the opinions of the public was taken into account by the Basin Committee in an additive to the project of RBMP: for example the objective of the good status of water was re-examined, it passed from 45% of water bodies in good state in 2015 to 61%.  
Between these periods of consultations (which lasted each one for 6 months), the Water Agency and the actors or relays remained mobilised to continue the educational job and for public information as regards the recovery of water quality.

- Continuation of the mobilisation of the actors or relays and of the public throughout the development and the implementation of the RBMP (2010-2015): many actors are engaged into analysis of the different questions and worked out methodological tools to associate the public,
- The participation in future consultations (in particular on the future RBMP (2016-2021),
- The objective of the good status of water wanted by the European Water framework Directive has to be achieved.

The success of the RBMP requires the adhesion and the understanding of the public.  To associate throughout the process (before and during the implementation) and at the time of each concrete action of protection of the resource allows each one to adapt and to implement the changes necessary for the improvement of the status of water and the aquatic environments.  This solution also makes it possible to raise the oppositions or reserves which each actor or resident can have at first on the implementation of a project by making it so that each are becoming actors of this change.

- the construction of partnerships with actors or relays on the territory of the basin is necessary to gear down information and the action locally. That makes it possible to install a communication of proximity with the inhabitants and more precisely to approach the sets of themes which relate to them (especially when the territory is vast, which is the case for the Loire Brittany Basin),
- the diversity of the actors enriches the democratic process,
- the diversity of the publicity campaigns (local visits, debates, spectacles, stands of information, projections…) is a factor of success to touch a large audience,
- the diversity of the pedagogical methods used makes it possible to approach the set of themes of water under various aspects by underlining the relationship between man and water.

In the other French catchment areas, actions were already committed to consult the public.
For the next consultation of the public (at the end of 2012 beginning 2013), a national campaign carried by the whole of the Water Agencies  is envisaged (with specific variations in each basin).

Agence de l’eau Loire Bretagne :
Paule Opériol, directrice de l’information et de la communication,
paule.operiol@eau-loire-bretagne.fr
Nathalie Ravot, chargée de mission information/ sensibilisation,
natahlie.ravot@eau-loire-bretagne.fr