Water agency (France)

The hydrographic basins of the overseas departments of Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, and Réunion are equipped with a Water Office, with equivalent missions.

[1] In 2000 the European Union created hydrographic districts based on the model of these basin agencies; in other countries their activities are fulfilled by a water board.

Water agencies have regulatory power to determine, within the limits of the missions assigned to them by law, the areas and conditions of their action and to define the general conditions for the allocation of financial assistance that they can provide to public and private entities in the form of subsidies, performance bonuses, or repayable advances (Council of State, 11 March 2020, No.

In 2009 on World Wetlands Day, Chantal Jouanno (Secretary of State for Ecology) announces the creation of a national group formed on the model of the Grenelle Environment Forum (thus involving the State, social partners, NGOs, and local authorities) tasked with taking stock and proposing measures for the preservation and restoration of wetlands.

In 2009 the explanatory memorandum of the Grenelle II Law estimates that there are still around 1.5 million hectares of wetlands in France, which are a "biodiversity reservoir and a factor in improving the quality of surface waters, buffer zones reducing the risk of flooding in the event of heavy rainfall, and significant storage of organic carbon in soils", but are "often threatened by the expansion of urbanization or changes in land use."

[6] To better circumvent water law, the capillary network upstream of rivers is simply wiped off the map, which could pave the way for increased pesticide use.