Access to drinking water: Senators call for a ‘Marshall Plan’ to tackle the ongoing crisis in the French Overseas Territories.
Despite the launch of the ‘Plan Eau DOM’ (Water Plan for Oversea Territories) in 2016, access to drinking water in the French Overseas Departments and Regions remains unequal and irregular. The Senate Finance Committee has asked the Cour des Comptes (French Court of Auditors) to take stock of the management of drinking water and sanitation in overseas France. Two MPs are calling for standards to be better adapted and for the problem of unpaid bills to be resolved in order to finance the maintenance of the networks.
In 2023, at the height of one of the worst water crises in Mayotte’s history, tonnes of bottles had to be transported by boat and distribution organised, first for the most vulnerable and then for the entire population.
At the end of 2024, drought in French Guiana led to a significant increase in the salinity of drinking water, forcing health authorities to advise against drinking tap water. On the island of Réunion, which was hit hard by Cyclone Garance in February, the water is still undrinkable throughout the island. Not to mention Guadeloupe and Martinique, where water cuts are commonplace.
In the French overseas departments and regions, the water crisis is never-ending. And it continues. Without any significant improvement in the situation. “There is, however, a collective awareness,” acknowledged Georges Patient, senator for French Guiana, at a press conference on Wednesday 12 March. But the situation is still critical.
75,000 people without drinking water in French Guiana and Mayotte
In order to draw attention to this issue, which has been regularly raised by elected representatives in the French overseas territories for years, the Senate Finance Committee has asked the Court of Auditors to carry out an investigation into the management of drinking water and sanitation in the French overseas territories. On Wednesday morning, Catherine Démier, President of the Fifth Chamber of the Supreme Court of Audit, appeared before the senators to present her report. “Despite the considerable resources deployed (…), it is still difficult to see any improvement”, she told the parliamentarians.
At the beginning of this week alone, heavy rains left the south and centre of Mayotte without running water. At the end of February, sabotage of the water network left tens of thousands of homes in Guadeloupe without running water. These cyclical risks are in addition to the many structural faults in the water networks in overseas France.
The representative of the French National Audit Office listed the following: in French Guiana and Mayotte, 75. 000 people do not have access to drinking water; in Martinique, 48% of water is lost due to the dilapidated state of the network (compared with a national average of less than 20%); in Guadeloupe, the figure is 60%, and in some parts of Basse-Terre it is as high as 80%; 25% of Guadeloupe’s population and 100% of Mahorais’ population are subject to water shut-offs.
To address this unacceptable situation, the French government launched a ‘Plan Eau DOM’ (Pedom) in 2016. Its aim is to improve coordination between national and local actors in water and sanitation management and to provide better funding for infrastructure. Despite a slow start and a relatively long implementation period, Pedom has proved its worth, according to the auditors.
“PEDOM offers (…) a national and multidisciplinary vision, a capacity to mobilise the political authorities and a pool of tools designed and managed by a central team. This team has grown over the years, with the appointment of a full-time coordinator who has brought a new dynamic.” (Cour des Comptes, report on “Drinking water and sanitation management in overseas France”, January 2025).
Adaptation to the specific characteristics of each territory
Nevertheless, problems remain. The Court highlights weaknesses in the financing of the system and in the local management of drinking water. Senators Georges Patient (Guyane) and Stéphane Fouassin (La Réunion), appointed special rapporteurs on the subject for the Committee on Finance, are therefore making recommendations, in line with the study, to improve the “DOM Water Plan” and resolve the water crisis in the overseas territories.
Firstly, they are calling for greater flexibility in the application of standards, both for the water itself and for the infrastructure used to treat and distribute the resource. “We want to draw the government’s attention to the difficulties we face with standards systems. Why buy pipes from mainland France when you could buy pipes from South Africa in Réunion?” asks Stéphane Fouassin.
They are calling for national and European standards to be better adapted to the specific characteristics of the outermost regions, as is already the case in the construction sector (the outermost regions no longer need CE marking for their materials, which means they can buy directly from their neighbours at lower cost).
The cost of building and maintaining water networks is much higher for people living in the outermost regions than for those living in mainland France. “The poorest French people pay for the most expensive water,” says the Guyanese senator. This is also underlined by the Court of Auditors in its report: “The average cost of a water bill for a poor household, which is 1.4% of its income in mainland France, ranges from 3% in Réunion to 6.2% in French Guiana and up to 25% in Mayotte.”
This brings us to another major problem, according to the two senators: unpaid bills. “Water pays for water,” says Stéphane Fouassin. In other words, users pay for the maintenance of the water distribution and treatment network. Yet the French overseas territories have the lowest rates of bill collection. In Réunion, for example, more than 9% of water bills were unpaid in 2022. 11% in Martinique, 16% and 18% in French Guiana and Mayotte. And almost a third in Guadeloupe. “The high level of unpaid bills is damaging to the water and sewerage systems, which need this source of funding. It is therefore desirable to improve the collection rate”, say the two senators.
However, there is an acute crisis of confidence in the regions, where many people feel that the drinking water service is not being provided. So why pay the bills? The Court of Auditors warns that “a vicious circle can be set in motion in which non-payment of bills leads to a lack of service, which exacerbates mistrust and refusal to pay”.
Government support is therefore essential to ensure that everyone has access to this resource. Senator Georges Patient has no hesitation in calling for a “Marshall Plan for drinking water”: “Local authorities can’t do it alone. They are all in a very difficult financial situation,” he points out, while the cost of the contracts linked to the “DOM Water Plan” has totalled €2.3 billion since the scheme was launched eight years ago.
“We have to act quickly”, says the Guyanese MEP. “It is unthinkable that by 2025 so many people in the French overseas departments will be without drinking water.” His colleague from Réunion hopes that access to drinking water will be on a par with that in France “before 2030”. But the project is huge. “There are kilometres and kilometres of pipes to be replaced,” the senators point out.
