France/ This commune allows group purchases of water recovery systems: "We're already being asked to repeat the operation".

In Val-Sonnette, the municipality has opted for group purchasing. We explain.

While most local authorities offer their residents the chance to purchase rainwater harvesters on their own, with the help of subsidies of varying levels, the commune of Val-Sonnette has decided to allow them to purchase them directly at a reduced price. the commune of Val-Sonnette has decided to allow them to buy them directly at a reduced price. A proposal made possible thanks toAquacollect, a Marseilles-based company.

"We had started to think about it

"Two years ago, we started thinking about how we could help our constituents acquire water recovery systems. Given the increasing scarcity of water resources, we didn't want residents to have to use running water to water their vegetable gardens. What's more, our drainage systems are not yet separate, so we need to recover some of the rainwater to prevent it from being washed away.This was a good solution," explains Brigitte Monnet, the town's mayor.

And while the municipality had already enabled the acquisition of composters via a group purchase, she wanted to repeat the operation with the water reclaimers. "But it was difficult to get a global response from suppliers for a group purchase. And that's when we received the e-mail from Aquacollect. "

A turnkey solution

A grouped e-mail, sent by the young company from the south of France to thousands of local authorities, was quickly snapped up by Val-Sonnette, making it the first to get its foot in the door.

Geoffroy Philippon and Frantz Pedler, co-directors of the company, explain: "We offer local authorities a turnkey solution, with an information and ordering site in the image of the commune, followed by grouped ordering and distribution, enabling costs to be kept to a minimum. "

Total cost: 29 euros per 1,000-liter tank. "Knowing that this is our first customer, we naturally made them an exceptional offer. But in any case, group purchasing means much lower prices. Not to mention that for the commune, it represents a lot less work than managing subsidies and invoice reimbursements, because we take care of everything. "

It's an operation that has won over not only the municipality's elected representatives, but also their constituents: within ten days, the forty recycling bins on sale had found takers.

Councillor Isabelle Pacou concludes: "Thanks to this operation, 10% of households in the commune are now equipped. And many other people are already asking us to repeat the operation. "

Source: actu.fr/bourgogne-franche-comte/