Urban Water Company Cluster

Alain CARBONEL (Regional Director Dijon Auxois Champagne Lyonnaise des Eaux)

  Tap water – an everyday product in our times – is nonetheless a potentially important asset for programmes whose goal is the improvement of public health. With the objective of proposing “good to drink” tap water what corresponds closely to consumer expectations in terms of quality and taste, Vitagora’s Urban Water Company Cluster, piloted by Lyonnaise des Eaux, evaluates the full impact of the consumption of tap water in the following areas:

 Health
 As the food product which undergoes the highest number of regulatory tests, tap water is a very safe product for which there are no medical contra-indications concerning its consumption. Tap water also represents an ideal alternative to high-calorie drinks which are contributing in a significant manner to diet imbalances. In line with the strategic positioning of Vitagora, the Urban Water cluster advocates an approach that associates nutritional benefits with sensorial research.

  Economy
 The consumption of bottled water is estimated at between 300 and 900 euros per year per household, according to the type of water. Tap water is less than 100th of the price of bottled water.

 Environment
 Public networks are by far the most environmentally friendly means of distributing water. Providing drinking water in bottles is nonsensical from an ecological point of view, considering the environmental cost of producing bottles and packaging, transport by truck to the point of sale and transport by car of the purchaser, not to mention the disposal or recycling of the empty bottles.

  Lyonnaise des Eaux, a French subsidiary of Suez Environment, is the second largest national operator with more than 4 million clients and 14 million residents served.

  The programme of the Urban Water cluster reinforces the national scope of Vitagora thanks to its aptitude for transposition on a national, even international level. This allows the Vitagora to exceed its regional perspective and achieve an international resonance.

  This cluster also involves the water distribution network of the greater Dijon area and the research and development expertise of Robertet, INRA Dijon, CESG and CIRSEE (the laboratory of Suez Environment specialised in analyses and research on the subject of water.

  Chlorine remains an essential element for the guarantee of bacteriological quality in water that arrives from a tap. The only persistent disinfectant (one that continues to be active the whole length of water transportation), chlorine is thus an indispensable part of water distribution.

  The objective of the Urban water cluster is therefore to seek a better comprehension of the effect of mineralization and chlorination on the taste of water and on its acceptability for consumers as a drinking water. 

  This programme has two main lines of research:

 Identification of links between sensorial preferences and the mineralization of water by isolating exogenous factors that exert an influence on consumer perception.

 Definition of mechanisms involved in the perception of chlorine and identification of means to reduce this perception.

  Suez Environment has an established expertise in the field of desalination of sea water. This procedure for eliminating mineral salts also requires the remineralisation of treated water in order for it to have a pleasant taste. In a new value-creating approach, the adaptation of this process of remineralisation according to the consumer preferences is being considered.

  This approach appears advantageous for the reinforcement of the competitiveness of Suez Environment and of its French collaborators in the the market for seawater desalination