Thanks JM. I will check this out.

Hello Abby,

About Paris, you should also contact Pr Bernard Barraqué, economist
www.centre-cired.fr/spip.php?article749

Regards,

JM

Greetings. Just want to thank you all again for providing such valuable input on water and sanitation exclusion in France.

Here is a brief update. Back in Paris again this summer for more preliminary fieldwork and additional French language studies. Conducting actual fieldwork in Paris next summer. My project is centered on understanding which bodies are excluded from centralized water and sanitation infrastructure in high-income and low-income countries alike and how different types of actions (e.g. grassroots efforts, informal access, transnational networks, policy change) can help counter such exclusions. So the study is using the urban lens to examine technical, political, and social aspects of water and sanitation exclusion around centralized water and sanitation infrastructure. It is shaping up to be a multiple city study. The goal is to compare infrastructure in high-income and low-income cities. Paris and Dakar are certain. New York and San Juan are likely.

Finally, I've linked up with two other graduate students [one from India and one from France] to engage in a public-awareness project while working on this study. We are working on a photo-book that will juxtapose sanitation exclusion and sanitation workers in six cities around the world [Paris, Dakar, New York, San Juan, London, and Mumbai]. The book will have an accompanying traveling display panel and lesson plan for schools and organizations in the six cities. It will be open source, and is primarily aimed at raising awareness around linkages in sanitation exclusion and sanitation work around the world.

Anyone in any of these field-sites with an interest in either of these projects is encouraged to contact me at ablbrown [at] ucsc [dot] edu! Have a great day!

Abby,

Here is an article on rom campsites that might interest you, from aquaterre (Strasbourg)

Ben

Thanks for sharing this information, Cecile. I read briefly about this effort for a national law for water/sanitation in France on the Coalition Eau website the other day, but I didn't know it required:

"local authorities would make available and would maintain sanitary facilities for the poorest people: public toilets and free in public more than 3500 inhabitants, public showers and free for the poor in public over 15,000 inhabitants."

Good to hear. Also, I wasn't aware that there are around 2 million in France without safe water (as referenced in the Abbot Pierre Foundation report). Now I'd like to get a copy of that report. Have a great day!

Thanks again.
Abby

Hi Abby,

Here is a link a to a simple article on the subject of access to water which explains the background to the petition co-launched by Coalition Eau (cf. post from Jean Marie Ily.

Kind regards,

Cecile

Greetings, JM.

Thanks for sending the Coalition Eau link: www.coalition-eau.org. Actually, I only found out about them today. The more that I'm learning about organizations working for a "right to water" in France, the more that I'm surprised we don't have such widespread initiatives in the US. Or maybe I'm not surprised. Most of our "right to water" initiatives are focused on those people and locations in the "Global South."

Anyhow, I will check out member organizations of the coalition. I'm considering doing a part-time internship (even unpaid) from September to December in Paris because it will be a good way to learn more about how these organizations work for a "right to water" here. This coalition provides many contacts. Thank you!

Best Regards.
ab

Hi Ben.

Great hear how your project is changing and moving forward since the last time we chatted. Yes, I'm excited to read your abstract soon. (I'm taking an intensive French language program now in Paris, and reading helps my skills progress faster.)

You might like to know that I've also been trying to visit dry toilets in Paris. There are some sustainable buildings on the edge of the city that installed dry toilets, and also some artist squats here using dry toilets. I've only visited one of the artist squats to see their dry toilet, and they were mixing pee/poo because they worried that people would not be inclined to use UD systems yet.

If you ever make it to Paris and want to chat more, that would be nice. Also, do you know of other dry toilets in Paris that I should visit? I'm really interested in the value of decentralized watsan technologies as creative solutions to processes of exclusion (even in the “Global North”).

Have a great day!
Abby

Greetings, Lael.

Thanks for sending along this information. Great to hear about Terr'Eau. Projects around equitable watsan in the “Global North” inspire me. It would be great to to talk with you more about your work in Paris on sanitation with the "Gens du Voyage” and the participatory field guide for “sanitation precariousness.”

In 2010, started out my work in watsan looking at gender, empowerment, and watsan in rural India with an interest in participatory methods ( here is the paper ). Upon returning to the US, began volunteering with Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human where we focused on public toilet design and access among other things. We were contacted by people sans abri hoping to collaborate for watsan solutions. Soon after, I realized we had ~3 million unhoused people and 1.7 housed people in the country without water and sanitation. So began to critically wonder:

(1) Why do processes of exclusion occur in watsan for certain people in countries that often espouse almost 100 percent access to watsan?
(2) What kinds of creative solutions (decentralized, informal, etc.) are being employed by these individuals for watsan?

Now, enrolled in a sociology PhD program to investigate such issues further. Trying to be involved global health and women's empowerment program in action and scholarship simultaneously. Last summer, developed a proposal while at a global health and women's empowerment program to implement a participatory project for watsan for people living in US group camps (will email to you). It was never submitted for funding.

For my research, thought it could be valuable to undertake a comparative study of urban spaces in two cities in separate countries (Paris and city in the US) to understand how exclusionary processes around watsan occur along with creative responses to such exclusion. Paris is a natural choice for a comparison city because of the watsan history here.

Sorry about such a long message, but it would be really great to chat more. Going to send you an email now. Have a great day.

Best Regards.
Abby

You should see the Coalition Eau
www.coalition-eau.org/

They are leading and advocacy campain for the Right to water and sanitation in France.

Regards,

JM

Hi Abby,

I'm from Montpellier and developping a project to bring dry toilets in dense urban environment. I just wanted to tell you that in the main proposal I'm setting up these days for the agglomeration of Montpellier (including 31 towns around Montpellier) is actually, after discussing it with them, focused on gypsies and homeless people.

Here is the extract :

ARTICLE 47 ACCES AUX SANITAIRES ET SOLIDARITE
47.1 Accès aux sanitaires
Conformément à la charte d’engagements visée à l’Article 5, la Collectivité souhaite
faciliter l’accès pour tous à des sanitaires publics.
Dans ce cadre, le Délégataire s’engage à mettre en œuvre les actions suivantes :
.................................. (à remplir par le candidat).
47.2 Solidarité locale
La Collectivité souhaite mettre en place avec les CCAS des communes un dispositif de
« chèque-eau » à destination des usagers en situation de pauvreté-précarité.
Le Délégataire abonde chaque année ce dispositif à hauteur de 0,5% de ses recettes
annuelles d’exploitation (hors produits accessoires et produits liés aux travaux). Les
sommes correspondantes sont versées selon les mêmes modalités que la part
47.3 « Collectivité ».
Le Délégataire apportera par ailleurs son concours à la Collectivité de la façon suivante :
.................................. (à remplir par le candidat en proposant par exemple une aide à la gestion ou tout autre dispositif complémentaire).
47.4 Coopération décentralisée
Le Délégataire s’engage à promouvoir, aux côtés de la Collectivité, des actions de
coopération décentralisée dans le domaine de l’eau. Le Délégataire abonde chaque année ce dispositif à hauteur de 0,5% de ses recettes annuelles d’exploitation (hors produits accessoires et produits liés aux travaux). Les sommes correspondantes sont versées selon les mêmes modalités que la part « Collectivité ». Ce versement permet à la Collectivité de constituer un fonds qu’elle abonde dans la limite de 1% de ses propres recettes.
Ce fonds finance des projets de coopération décentralisée retenus par la Collectivité.

The situation for the gypsi camps in many areas of france is extremly shamefull, it's a very complicated matter, no doubt about it, but the fact that far too many politicians from all sides are campaingning on the evacuations of these camps is just so shamefull for me. Extract from the kind of guys we've got here : www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2014/03..._4376979_823448.html we could ask him if he though about sanitation in his camps.

Tell me if you need a translation, I won't have time in the next few days but if you're patient enough I'll do it.

Your research is very important, good luck and thanks for carrying it and please share the results with us so we can spread it in the sanitation sector here.

Ben

Hi Abby,

I work in a small organization, Terr'Eau, located in south-west of France. We're member of the RAE.

We've worked on different settlements around Toulouse with migrants from eastern Europe (most of them were Roma, but it doesn't matter...). We also worked on some projects in Paris area with "french gypsies", administratively called "Gens du Voyage".

We quickly realized that the main issue wasn't on sanitation technics, but rather in the methodology used by volunteers and charities organization who were willing to help them not in a participative way. We started to work with Anne Delmaire of Toilettes du Monde to build a methodological guide for field organization helping people in "sanitary precariousness", that is to say people without (or with bad or little) access to water and sanitation. As you seem to speak French, you can watch this video presenting our work :

The guide is inspired of methods and tools like SARAR and PHAST. We adapted and created some tools for those situations of precariousness in France, which mainly concerns migrants from eastern europe and "French Gypsies". Our work is not completed yet, we still have some editing to make and then all the publishing.

I'm far from Paris, but I can give you contacts of people involved on settlements. You can contact me by mail : lien [à] terreau [dot] org

Best regards,

Lael Delort
Association Terr'Eau
www.terreau.org