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Perrine and Julien

currently in France

Marc and Laure

currently in France

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L’etonnante situation de l’eau en Polynesie francaise

24/11/2010

By The Energy Tellers

Why should you think twice before drinking tap water or taking a dip in Tahiti?

Tahiti, the sun, the heat … thirsty all of a sudden? Your immediate reaction is to run the tap and pour yourself a large glass of water. In French Polynesia only half the population can do so since just five out of 48 districts supply their residents with potable water. Isn’t it astonishing?

So, without tap water to refresh you, maybe the sea should do the job. You dive into the ocean at the very first beach you find. Bad idea! According to the Public Health and Safety Center (Centre d’Hygiène et de Salubrité Publique) bathing is impossible in most of the water around the island of Tahiti, due to unsuitable waste water treatment systems. Strange for such a tourist site, isn’t it?

Who is in charge of the water and treatment service in French Polynesia?

The districts are responsible for drinking water and treatment. They can then delegate this responsibility to a private operator under several agreements.

Why are there not more water facilities?

Providing drinking water and treating waste water requires large investments and the districts do not always have the resources. Furthermore, in many parts of Polynesia, residents are reluctant to pay for drinking water. Running water is paid for once a year at a fixed price (and therefore not based on consumption) that is not very high. In this setting it is difficult for districts to consider large investments, which would result in raising the water price.

If you took a good look at the table in the above paragraph, you would say to us, “but with a concession agreement the private operator invests for the district! That could get things moving!” That’s right, but investments by public bodies benefit from much larger grants and the districts often prefer lease agreements, where they are in charge of the investments.

Even if there is still a great deal to do, the situation should improve in the years ahead thanks to territorial legislation requiring the districts to supply potable water by 2015 and treat their waste water by 2020.

Why mention it?

Well, it is interesting because a SUEZ Environnement company is sector leader: La Société Polynésienne des Eaux et de l’Assainissement.

Established in 1992, SPEA provides a public service in water and waste water treatment for districts, co-ownership associations and communities:

Production and distribution of potable water
Treatment and decontamination of waste water
Customer service

SPEA can be considered a pioneer in the French Polynesian water sector:

In 1992, Papeete was Tahiti’s first district to supply potable water to its residents thanks to its agreement with SPEA. The town is currently working on a vast collective public treatment program in collaboration with the GDF SUEZ subsidiary.
Since 1997, the island of Bora Bora and Vaitehi, a subsidiary of SPEA, have been international benchmarks in water scarcity management: limited underground pumping is supplemented by seawater desalination and waste water is used to irrigate hotel gardens.
The first district in Tahiti to benefit from a collective public treatment system, Punaauia, in 2002 entrusted the operation of its waste water treatment plant to SPEA. This treatment program had the special feature of being 70% financed by the European Development Fund.

A big thank you to the SPEA teams for welcoming us and sharing these fascinating priorities with us. You can find more details on the businesses and activities of SPEA at http://www.net-pf.com/spea/

The Energy Tellers.

Here are two interesting links for those who want to find out about the subject in more depth:

The condition of collective public waste water treatment in French Polynesia, by the Directorate of the Environment of French Polynesia: http://www.environnement.pf/spip.php?rubrique123
A French Senate report on the water situation in French Polynesia in 2007 and still relevant: http://www.senat.fr/rap/r08-130/r08-13010.html

6 comments on this post

HAUPERT

26/11/2010

Dans la culture polynésienne, l’eau est un don des dieux. On peut comprendre alors la réticence des habitants à payer l’eau potable.

SPETH

27/11/2010

Votre article prète à confusion.
En 1993, BORA-BORA possédait la distribution d’eau potable (VAITEHI)et l’assainissement des hôtels (ROTOMA). Ces 2 entreprises, étaient gérées par ELECTRA (en même temps que la production et la distribution d’énergie électrique) filiale d’EDT.La distribution de l’eau industrielle fut mis en place en 1994/95 (à vérifier) en 1997,la SPEA, pris le flambeau sur l’eau, l’assainissement et la distribution de l’eau industrielle de BORA-BORA.

The Energy Tellers

30/11/2010

Merci de votre commentaire, qui nous permet de préciser ce point. C’est en effet Electricité de Tahiti qui, via Electra, a débuté les activités de distribution d’eau potable et d’assainissement des eaux usées à Bora Bora, et démarré la production et distribution d’eau d’arrosage issues du traitement des eaux usées. C’est bien en 1997 que la SPEA a repris le flambeau sur ces activités (eau potable, eaux usées et eaux d’arrosage). C’est en revanche en 2005 que la SPEA a lancé la production et distribution d’eau à usage industriel à partir du traitement des eaux usées. Par ailleurs, pour parer à la raréfaction de l’eau sur l’île, la SPEA a aussi mis en place en 2001 un osmoseur inverse. Ce produit de haute technologie permet aujourd’hui encore d’obtenir de l’eau potable par le dessalement de l’eau de mer.

Maytthave (May) Ongusaha

29/11/2010

is it possible to write your articles in English please?
Just for our understanding. )
thanks
May

Andrea Keys

08/02/2011

Interesting blog!

I spent some time working in Tahiti almost ten years ago now. It is a stunning part of the world and I am surpised to hear the bathing water quality is so low?

It also seems ironic that grant funding intending to promote and improve essential infrastructure such as waste water treatment should actually become a deterrent, discouraging the districts from looking at potentially more beneficial long term investment options with the private sector.

For such a naturally beautiful part of the world it seems a great shame to wait until 2020 to enforce/encourage changes to the treatment of waste water? Without changes to the mechanism of financing public infrastructure development in Tahiti, the Country will surely still face the same funding issues in 2020?

Is it not possible to assist the area in investigating ‘partnership’ style working arrangements which would allow the districts to access both the grants and at the same time take advantage of private sector financial input and technical expertise?

Andrea

Brice

16/02/2011

Investigations with both polynesian and french governments to set fair public private partnership are already engaged. PPP would allow the districts to combine public grants and service with private financial and technical expertise. Managing both service operation and investments, the “concession” model should be very efficient in Polynesia to significantly improve water and waste water public services. Therefore, common thinkings must evolute in Polynesia :
- quality tap water is not free and must be paid at a fair price ;
- helth and environnement protection are social and tourism key factors ;
- private sector can assume public service and get public grants ;
- necessary water price increases must be socialy helped.
Water and waste water public services must be industrial services and not politic tools.