the water treatment market | France

1.1 Definition of the water treatment market

The water treatment market encompasses all activities aimed at harvest, distribute, allow use, but also to recovering waste water, purifying it and finally discharging it in the natural environment, or put them back into circulation for human use

The market players are local authorities, delegated private operators, public operators, framing bodies, pipefitters, equipment manufacturers and construction and engineering companies.

The French market is experiencing a true stability with a slight increase of 1.01% over the year 2019. Water consumption in France can be broken down into three uses:

• Domestic use (household, office and tertiary sector consumption) ;
• Agricultural use (crop irrigation and animal feed);
• Industrial use (extractive and productive industries, from which the energy use that corresponds to energy production is sometimes dissociated).

Domestic water consumption is declining in France while the population is growing. Sanitation stations are creating a fine network of water treatment plants to adapt to national consumption. These stations can be managed by public or private operators, but in all cases work in close collaboration with local authorities and the water agency

In the future, more circularity can be expected in the sector, with better reuse of treated water and sewage sludge. These sustainable behaviours are greatly encouraged by the European authorities and should lead to economies of scale.