ATHENS Week 2010: program

As last year, Bernard Barraqué (Research Director at the French CNRS and professor at the ENGREF-AgroParisTech), Jean-Luc Trancart (Consultant and Professor of Water policies and technologies at the ENPC) and  Laure Isnard (Research assistant at the CNRS) organized an intensive course on European Water and Sanitation Services vs. Sustainable Develoment for the 2010 edition of the ATHENS European Week.

Teaching targets of the 2010 session on “European Water and Sanitation Services vs. Sustainable Development” :

In European Union member-States, water and sanitation services are organised under a wide array of management schemes, due to different choices in three dimensions: public vs private, local (municipal) vs more centralised, sector-based (unbundling) vs integrated-transversal (e.g. German Stadtwerk). Yet, beyond these differences, they share a common principle of public-private partnership, and a strong preference for consumerization (cost recovery through bills paid by users rather than taxes). This is the result of a long process initiated in the 19th century with the first concessions to private companies, but followed by the massive development of direct labour management formula, and later by the frequent creation of municipal enterprises.

Now that water services are quasi-universalised in most European countries, elements of a new crisis appear, with the need for long term maintenance of a heavy and costly infrastructure, but with no more subsidies; this leads to serious price increases, in addition to the general inclusion of sewage collection and treatment in the water bill. Urban stormwater management, the attempt to control agriculture diffuse pollution in well head areas, and flood control, lead large cities to reconsider their relationships to water resources, and to try to replace technological solutions by territorial ones. Last but not least, the new trend in water consumption decrease, which appears in numerous cities, adds up to the sustainability issue: if it develops too fast, recipes do not match expenses and the financial balance is threatened.

This ATHENS European week will present to European students a few contrasted cases of territorial organisation and management formulas, and inform them of attempts by managers and reflections by academics on sustainable strategies. For each country or group of countries we will try to find out what are the main drivers of sustainability among the 4 following dimensions:

• long term asset renewal and maintenance
• environmental and health concerns
• consumer equity and social tariff issues
• new forms of governance needed.

Program:

• MONDAY 15^th OF NOVEMBER

9am-12am : PRESENTATION OF THE SEMINAR and the European Commission’s position concerning public services (SGEI) and its difficult applicability in the case of water. Bernard Barraqué, Research Director at the French CNRS and professor at the ENGREF-AgroParisTech.

2pm-5pm : THE UNITED KINGDOM. Thomas Zabel, independent Environmental Consultant, formerly Water Research and Consultancy, and Gaëtane Suzenet, Director Manager of the National Centre of Excellence for Water in Orléans, formerly Operations Director at Waterwise UK.

• TUESDAY 16^th OF NOVEMBER
  

9am-12am : ITALY. Andrea Mangano, Director of International Operations for ACEA SpA Rome and Antonio Massarutto, Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Udine, and Bocconi University, Milano.

2pm-5pm : EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES and PORTUGAL. Jean-Patrice Poirier, Europe Development Director  for Veolia Environnement, Bernard Barraqué and Jean-Luc Trancart, consultant and Professor of Water policies and technologies at the ENPC.

• WEDNESDAY 17^th OF NOVEMBER

9am-12am : THE NETHERLANDS and BELGIUM. Stefan Kuks, Professor of Innovation and Water Policy Implementation at the University of Twente and chairman of the Regional Public Water Authority Regge en Dinkel, and Cédric Prevedello, Scientific consultant at AquaWal, the Union of the water cycle professionals of Wallonia.

2pm-5pm : PERSONAL WORK AND GROUP DISCUSSIONS

• THURSDAY 18^th OF NOVEMBER

9am-12am : SPAIN. Pere Verger, Head of Projects Production for AGBAR and David Sauri, Professor at the Geography Department and Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

1:30pm-5pm : GERMANY. Ulrike Raasch, Ecologist in charge of the sustainable stormwater management for the Emschergenossenschaft, Arno Bäumer, assistant to the CEO of the Ruhrverband, Markus Kerber, Professor of Political Economy and Public Finance at the TU Berlin, and Jens Libbe from the German Institute of Urban Affairs (DIFU-Berlin).

• FRIDAY 19^th OF NOVEMBER
  

9am-12am : FINAL ROUND TABLE. Bernard Barraqué, Jean-Luc Trancart, Francisco N. Correia, formerly Portuguese Minister for Environment, Spatial Planning and Regional Development, Erik Mostert, Professor at the Delft University of Technology and Pierre Victoria, General Advisor for the Cercle Français de l’Eau.

2pm-5pm : FINAL EVALUATION OF THE STUDENTS

FULL PROGRAM TO DOWNLOAD HERE.