Citizen Resistance is Possible
Jacques Perreux, vice-president of the “Conseil Général du Val de Marne” (General Council of Val de Marne), is proud of having at least retained the sewage sector of the department. The sanitation price there is far below the one proposed to neighbouring Ile-de-France agglomerations. Nevertheless, the technical level of their wastewater treatment plants is exemplary. With its project to also sanitize rainwater in the future, Val de Marne holds one of the rare top places at the European level. Jacques Perreux’s only concern is the monopoly of private laboratories for the quality control of wastewater. Therefore, together with Anne Le Strat and some communes near Paris, he launched an initiative to build a common laboratory which could assess water quality independently of the private laboratories of the Paris region.