FAQ

SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has supported Aquassistance since its creation in 1994. This NGO allows our employees to help people in distress around the world,on a voluntary basis.

Aquassistance, which has 650 members today, makes it possible to take  action in emergencies and in favour of development aid. Its effectiveness is recognised: since its creation the association has carried out nearly 150 emergency support, development aid and rehabilitation operations. It currently has about 60 development projects under way, with more than a 100 volunteers taking action each year. The volunteers use their spare time (during their retirement or during leave) to apply their skills to the design and installation of drinking water and sanitation distribution systems, as well as training local people to operate and maintain them. The association also carries out information and awareness-raising campaigns on the importance of hygiene and safeguarding water resources.

In its "humanitarian locker" located at Nanterre, the association stores, maintains and prepares the material and equipment required for its operations (mobile water treatment units, pumps, etc.).

A very important point for us is that Aquassistance only intervenes in projects that are completely distinct from the business development of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT.

We are not the owners of the water we distribute. Water in the natural environment, whether in lakes, rivers or water tables, is a renewable resource that belongs to no one: water is not a commodity, but a common good. Similarly, access to drinking water and the sanitation of wastewater is a basic right of every human being.

Our role is different. To allow consumers to have access to drinking water, a public water utility has to be set up, that is, a series of activities and services, that extract water from the natural environment, treat it to make it consumable, transport it to the homes of the consumers, then recover the wastewater and purify it before restoring it to the natural environment. A public water utility – which requires large-scale investment, considerable technological skill, and an on-going quest for quality among other things – can be managed directly by the public authority (in the form of a municipal corporation for example) or delegated to private operators. We intervene within the latter framework.

First of all, that accusation bears no relation to reality. A concession contract runs for a period of 12 to 30 years, during which time the public authority basically delegates the responsibility for operating and building new works to the private player. The contract also stipulates the rules for changing water rates.

In addition, through the contract, the public authority stipulates the long-term planning objectives, and throughout the concession controls the actions carried out by the private operator. The infrastructures are restored to the authority in full at the end of the contract. Lastly, if it is not satisfied with the services of the private player, it can terminate the concession in accordance with the contractual provisions.

Furthermore, a Public-Private Partnership should not be restricted to the concessionary model alone. Private enterprise can intervene at various levels, ranging from management support, to service and maintenance work, or the construction and operation of technical facilities, to name but a few.

SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has long-standing experience in a wide range of contracts, from management support in Mexico City or Amman, to operation and maintenance in Indianapolis, or delegated management as on the Paris Left Bank.

By using the biogas that produces them. As it ferments, waste produces gas, mainly composed of methane or what is called biogas. This is collected and used to produce energy (heat or electricity). Rainwater running through waste produces a liquid called a leachate, which is collected and treated in sewage plants.

19,000 homes. A plant that treats 250,000 tons of waste a year produces 115,000 MWh, which can be used to supply 19,000 homes with electricity, or a town of 60,000 to 80,000 inhabitants.

3 planets - compared to 0.45 planet for the African average. We consume more food and we therefore  produce more waste. We also consume more energy and more water.
Simple gestures can help prevent over-packaging or over-use  of plastic bags,we can use our  cars less, or limit the wastage of water and food.

50 years.

1 kg. With the increase in consumption and growth in population, together with  the concentration of households in cities, waste, volume are both increasing(2% per year) and becoming more varied.

A water service has a cost: it takes money to carry out the investments required to treat and distribute water, and to ensure the operation of the service.
Public authorities choose the means they use to cover the cost: payment for the service directly by users direct, indirect payment through the taxes levied on each taxpayer, or a combination of both. In addition, certain countries benefit from subsidies provided by international aid mechanisms.

In our opinion, making people pay for water is necessary to avoid wastage and degradation of our common heritage; but that does not mean everyone must pay the same price. To take into account the differences in the capacity of users to pay for water, the authorities in question can, depending on the current legislation, use solidarity pricing (equalisation) and/or, when necessary, subsidies from public authorities (grants).

The Public-Private Partnership is not a "model", but a flexible concept with a wide range of contractual forms; each one of them has its own area of relevance, and all are not applicable everywhere.

For us, however, a basic virtue of a PPP is that it is based on a contract with objectives decided by and between a public authority with a service to provide and an operator with the skills to do so, which clearly stipulates the roles and responsibilities of both.

The technological expertise of private operators, the innovative quality of the solutions they can provide, in complex geographical or demographic situations in particular, as well as their culture based on customer relations, are all guarantees of effectiveness and quality both for the public authority and for the end-consumer.

For these various reasons, we think Public-Private Partnerships should develop in the coming years. Indeed, less than 10% of public water utilities in the world are fully or partly delegated to private operators. The challenges are such, particularly in the South which is confronted by demographic and urban explosions, that they can only be resolved by an alliance between the power and skills of public and private players.

We are extremely vigilant with respect to all issues related to ethics. We scrupulously follow the Ethics Guidelines of the SUEZ Group, which precisely define what is and is not acceptable in terms of commercial or relational behaviour. In addition, we have set up a network of deontologists responsible for ensuring that SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT and each of its affiliates are beyond reproach as regards ethics.

The vast majority of the international invitations to tender to which we reply are based on a highly regulated framework with extremely strict rules that we apply with the greatest rigour. The transparency of public utility operators is a requirement increasingly demanded by the general public, and we endeavour to put that into practice:
- by providing public access to our  contracts when this is possible under the relevant regulations,

- by taking initiatives designed to give greater account of our activities, for example by standardising our performance indicators with those of other operators.

By a factor of 4, thanks to an automatic compaction system that reduces the volume of packaging products,and also reduces the number of trips made by collection trucks thereby helping to protect the environment.

Packaging products (32%). Our dustbins contain more and more packaging products and less and less organic matter (vegetables, plants, etc).

A biofuel made by blending canola seed with 30% gas oil. Diester reduces the emissions of greenhouse gases by 25%. SITA, a subsidiary of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, is developing the use of this biofuel for its collection trucks.

Recycling involves manufacturing a new material based on an existing material already in use. For example, using the plastic bottles used for household or healthcare products (detergents, shampoo, etc.) can be transformed into  garden furniture.
Recovery is the transformation of waste into a new resource (such as energy or manure). For example, the waste burnt in incineration plants is transformed into energy (electricity or heat).

70%. Blast-furnace slag, the residue obtained by the combustion of waste, is recovered to be use in civil engineering (mainly to build roads).

We adhere to the objective to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water or basic sanitation by 2015. When we are involved in developing countries, we consider that our role is to help achieve that aim. For instance, our "Water for All" programme has enabled several million of the poorest people to have access to drinking water in Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Casablanca, Manila, and La Paz. These projects were developed with local governments and international co-operation agencies. In 2004, the UNDP – the United Nations Development Program – distinguished our program by awarding it the "World Business Award in support of the Millennium Development Goals".

Our contribution may be  modest when compared to  the scale of the worldwide problem and could  undoubtedly be improved. However, it shows that the Millennium Goals can be reached, and even bettered, when public authorities, local communities and private operators take action and work together. Our employees in the field are proud of those achievements.

Comparing the price of water levied by public management and delegated management systems has no meaning on a national scale. Each local situation is different: water can be abundant and accessible in one area, and rare and poor quality in another. In addition the price rates have to be carefully compared, as well as the costs borne by taxpayers and those that are paid direct by end-users… It makes for a  complex discussion.

Various examples show that in highly developed states as well as in emerging countries, there are no grounds for criticism of private enterprise of that kind.
In Bolivia, for example, the comparative study undertaken in 2004 by the public institution regulating the water service indicated that our subsidiary, Aguas del Illimani, had the lowest price rate per m3 of drinking water for domestic customers in the country's cities even though all the other operators were public corporations or cooperatives.

Similarly, in Buenos Aires, the price charged by Aguas Argentinas was the one of the lowest in all the cities of Latin America.

In the United States, it has been found that Public-Private Partnerships between municipal authorities and companies can save between 10% and 40% of the costs compared with municipal management systems alone. These savings are realised through economies of scale, effective cost control, innovation and proper asset management practices.

In France, where the water supply for three-quarters of the population is managed by the private sector, the average price of water is lower than in other European countries dominated by the public management system.

Lastly, it is worth noting that private operators are called upon more frequently in communities confronted with difficulties such as the scarcity or vulnerability of the resource, or the complexity of the systems that have to be managed, or infrastructure delays due  to the scale of investment required.

Partnerships between public authorities and private operators, whatever their purpose or content, do not mean private enterprise replaces the public corporation.

The public authority remains the only decision-taker with regard to service methods and any social arbitration the service may require. It is the only authority qualified to set the price rate structure and the rules for changing it as part of the contract; it defines the priorities in terms of improving the service, the operating areas as well as the assessment methods.

Lastly, as part of a delegated management contract, the infrastructures continue to be owned by the public authorities.

Glass, aluminium and steel.

Plastic bottles, commonly known as PET.