The urban authority of Agen has awarded Saur the contract to manage its water supply and wastewater treatment services

On 28 November 2018, Jean Dionis du Séjour, President of the Urban Authority of Agen, Pierre Delouvrie, Mayor of St Hilaire de Lusignan and vice-president for water supply and wastewater treatment, and Louis-Roch Burgard, Executive Chairman of SAUR, officially signed the DSP public utilities outsourcing contract for management of the authority’s water supply and wastewater services. Adopted following the vote held on 11 October, this contract appoints Saur to manage the drinking water supply and wastewater treatment services provided to the authority’s 100,000 or so residents via a dedicated company known as Eau de Garonne from 1 January 2019 onwards. The official signature of the contract follows the 12 November verdict of the Bordeaux court confirming the award by the Urban Authority of Agen of its drinking water supply and wastewater treatment contract to Saur in a hearing where the judge rejected all the applications made to the court by the previous outsourced service provider. Based on co-construction, the innovative bid submitted by Saur convinced the 31 communes of the urban authority to award the company the contract to manage its water supply and wastewater treatment services, which had been managed for 75 years by competitors or in-house. The Saur bid was structured around a series of ambitious goals. • The formation of a dedicated company introduces a transparent and participative way of working that enables contractual commitments to be monitored and information to be provided continuously. • Improved network efficiency - reducing the leakage volume by 30% will save 12 million m3 of water over the contract period. This saving will be made possible by the introduction of a dedicated leak location and repair team. At the same time, Saur has given its commitment to implement an innovation policy that includes installing smart sensors to all 1,500 km of network pipelines (flowmeters, sensors, probes, smart connections, acoustic correlators, etc.). • Reconstruction of the Sérignac water production plant, which abstracts and processes up to 5,100 m3 of water per day from the River Garonne. The rebuilt plant will provide the urban authority’s consumers with water treated to an optimum level, at the same time as reducing the environmental impact: landscape integration of the site, and energy self-sufficiency as a result of installing solar panels and a hydrokinetic turbine to harness the power of the River Garonne to generate clean energy.... • Increased wastewater treatment performance from the 484 km of drainage networks, 144 pumping stations and 9 treatment plants by proposing relevant, realistic solutions. More specifically, Saur has built a full-blown strategy for combatting the influx of extraneous water right across the urban authority area, with 170 measurement points, 22,328 linear metres of smoke testing per year and inspection of 366 existing connections per year. • The customer relationship will be reinvented to bring the service much closer to consumers by opening two customer service points, including one in the town centre, staffed by customer advisers who work exclusively for the 51,500 subscribers of the urban authority area, and by introducing a remote reading system for all the water metres in the urban community so that consumers can monitor their water consumption in real time. • A reinvented customer relationship that brings us closer to consumers. Saur is committed to opening two customer service points, including one at 97 Boulevard Carnot in the town centre, staffed by customer advisers who work exclusively for the 51,500 subscribers of the urban authority area. All the meters in the urban authority area will be fitted with a remote reading system by 2022, allowing consumers to monitor their consumption in real time. • Deep local roots Saur is committed to creating local jobs by locating a Regional Division at the Technopole Agen Garonne (TAG) technology park, as well as an Operations Control Centre (OCC), the ‘water control tower’ that provides real-time supervision of water supply and wastewater treatment operations, and centralises all the necessary expert skills in a single hub. In parallel with these direct jobs, Saur is equally committed to a proactive policy to energise the wider community around its Agen base by creating its own business incubator, the Lab. The Lab will test innovations as part of stimulating the local startup and SME ecosystem. For every French job created, Saur creates approximately three indirect jobs through its proactive policy of the regions in which it is based. To ensure its employees’ adoption of this project and put in place the preparations required to ensure operational continuity now, Saur has brought together all the teams currently attached to this service with those Saur employees who could be involved in managing this contract. Saur Executive Chairman Louis-Roch Burgard: “I’m delighted that the urban authority of Agen has placed its trust in us. The teams at Saur are devoted to offering their customers the best-possible quality of service, and are delighted to welcome those personnel who now deliver that service. This success underlines the excellent financial health of Saur and the resources now available to fund its forward development following the equity investment made by its future shareholder EQT, the European investment fund that specialises in infrastructures and long-term investment to support companies as they grow”. Key figures for drinking water: 51,500 subscribers, 4 production units, 34 storage reservoirs and 1,550 km of supply networks. Key figures for wastewater treatment: 35,400 subscribers, 9 wastewater treatment plants with a total treatment capacity of 200,000 population equivalent, 144 abstraction points and 500 km of drainage networks.