The Rhone-Mediterranean and Corsica Water Agency

The Rhone-Mediterranean and Corsica Water Agency is a French public body regulated by the Ministry for Ecology, Energy, Sustained Development and Spatial Planning.

Its role is to help elected representatives and local communities, economic stakeholders and inhabitants use water resources rationally and fight against the pollution and deterioration of aquatic environments.
To achieve its goals, it collects charges based on the “polluter-payer” and “taker-payer” principle. It also funds initiatives for the conservation and exploitation of aquatic environments, in the form of subsidies paid to public or private developers.

As part of the national and European water management policies, the Water Agency implements the guidelines defined by the Rhone-Mediterranean and Corsica Basin Committees, which like genuine “water parliaments” bring together the representatives of the water stakeholders from these major river basins.

Basin Committee missions

The Basin Committee is an assembly where all the water stakeholders at each major river basin’s level meet to decide on the water policy and develop the agencies’ actions plans; coordinate on behalf of the French State the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive; take part in the development and implementation of the international cooperation actions carried out by the water agencies.