Because then there is the implementation of the plans and in the implementation
of the plans we discover this subsidiarity.
If I summarize, we can say that the Integrated Water Resources Management
may be carried out effectively and efficiently in Switzerland
if all the strata of water management that needs to be
coordinated – the planning - is centralised by watersheds.
This planning will outline where,
with what priorities, which action.
This action will be delegated to the body
responsible for the implementation of the action, usually the commune
sometimes the canton, sometimes intercommunal associations,
or intercommuncal syndicats, sometimes cooperatives, there are even
owners cooperatives for protection against flooding.
And so these people will be responsible for implementing the planning.
So, to use the subsidiarity in an intelligent way, we can say
that planning is integrated, and the implementation is done,
could be carried out at a fully subsidiary level, delocalised.
And you can also go further.
We could say, but why continue to have these different levels?
Why can we not make a single management entity that does everything?
>> But this time, the challenge is huge,
it means negotiating with a massive number of interlocutors.
>> Very important and it was done.
It is still rare in Switzerland but I had the opportunity to do so
in a valley in the canton of Neuchâtel.
There is an enormous amount of communication.
Ultimately, as it is the citizen who decides, we must convince the citizen.
Do not convince the government, do not convince the politicians.
Or rather, the politicians and the government,
and the citizen need to be convinced.
To take the example of the Val-de-Ruz. It was presented
to the 16 communes, the entire population, before the final vote.
So everyone was invited into a school gym.
The smaller the commune, the more people came - it was pretty amusing.
More than 100 people were there. There was a presentation of
about three quarters of an hour to tell them this is what we will do.
Here’s how it'll work, here’s how you will be organised etc.
And then, questions.
Questions and answers.
And in some communes, the session started at eight in the evening,
and it ended at midnight.
Four hours of intense questions and answers in order for people
at the end, to be convinced that, yes, they will vote in favour.
So that's it.
Drinking water was integrated including the private connections that have become
public, the sanitation, the agricultural drainage system -
we did a huge amount of lobbying among the farmers.
In Switzerland, farmers are powerful decisions makers.
They have an extremely powerful lobby. It is the same for fishermen.
If you want a successful integrated water resources management, you must have all the fishermen,
all the farmers on board. It's a little silly to say, but that’s how it is.
>> And through these two activity sectors, you can see
the intersectoral issues and the importance of sectors.
If we take the example
of hydropower. We have an industry
where the watershed is not necessarily a reference in itself.
There are huge plants in Switzerland who fetch water
across multiple watersheds,
storing it and then turbining
outside of a geographically defined watershed.
Therefore, based on these examples, what do you think
about this watershed scale as the unit of reference
Does it make sense for water management?
>> When you speak of a watershed,
one can imagine all kinds of watersheds.
There are hydrological watersheds,
the rivers, in the valleys, there are hydrogeological watersheds,
which are not exactly the same, especially when it's karst.
There are the technical watershed particularly those in the catchment,
production and distribution of drinking water.
Or those of urban sanitation, collecting wastewater,
the treatment, the restitution.
So already, there are 4 different watersheds.
The fifth already mentioned is that of hydroelectricity which
creates short circuits between hydrological watersheds. In the canton of Valais,
in the Grisons, it's obvious. There are dozens, hundreds of kilometres of
pipelines that bypass, which move water from the
catchment area to be taken to another artificial development of the
the sub-watershed or basin. >> So,
hydropower is specific.
It is the only sector in Switzerland which is private. So it's a double challenge.
When you talk about protection against floods, urban sanitation,
drinking water, ecology, it's all in the public sector.
There is not any, with the smallest exception,
it is all in the public sector, not the private.