The French municipality of Villejuif joins a public authority to manage its drinking water. On 1 January 2024, nine municipalities in the Val-de-Marne turned their water services to a public enterprise. Now, Eau Seine & Bièvre welcomes the municipality of Villejuif, leaving the private water company Syndicat des Eaux d’Ile-de-France, as a tenth member.
Tap water is now public in Villejuif. The town in the Val-de-Marne has kept its election promise. From 1 January 2026, the municipality’s more than 57,000 inhabitants will be served by the public water company Eau Seine & Bièvre, according to the Grand Orly Seine Bièvre local authority, of which the municipality is part.
Together with Athis-Mons (Essonne), Villejuif has decided to take back control of the distribution of drinking water in its area. Anne-Gaëlle Leydier, first deputy for urban development and the ‘city of tomorrow’ at Villejuif town hall, said:
“It is an important question of reappropriation, because water is no longer a concern for the inhabitants.”
Villejuif joins the nine other municipality of the Val-de-Marne that already belong to this public service: Arcueil, Cachan, Chevilly-Larue, Fresnes, Gentilly, Ivry-sur-Seine, Kremlin-Bicêtre, Orly and Vitry-sur-Seine. These ten municipality have chosen to leave the powerful private Syndicat des Eaux d’Ile-de-France, which provides water to 133 municipalities. The Syndicat than delegates the production and distribution of drinking water for 4 million people to Veolia. Since the beginning of the year, the nine communes have been able to set their own water prices and invest in maintaining the networks and limiting leaks. Michel Leprêtre, Chairman of Grand Orly Seine Bièvre, explains:
“Since 1 January 2024, the public Eau Seine & Bièvre has supplied drinking water to 325,000 inhabitants. For them, water is once again a public service, free from restrictive and capitalist rules.”
Although the separation from Sedif still has to be approved by the prefect of the Île-de-France region, Villejuif is already working on sharing networks and infrastructure between the public authority and Sedif so that “we can coexist”, explains Anne-Gaëlle Leydier. Remember, the water in our taps comes from the Choisy-le-Roi waterworks (Val-de-Marne), as the public water company Eau Seine & Bièvre does not have its own drinking water production plant.
If Villejuif leaves Sedif, the municipality of Valenton (Val-de-Marne) will join on 1 January 2025. In the Grand Orly Seine Bièvre area – which includes 24 municipalities, 16 of which with public water service – there is a game of musical chairs when it comes to drinking water management. “If other towns want to join us tomorrow, the door is open,” says Michel Leprêtre.
