Origin and implementation of a new public policy for on-site sanitation in France: Towards a more responsible global value chain of wastewater?

A reform in 2006 created the public service for on-site sanitation (OSS), called SPANC in French, based on a transfer of competence from the state to municipalities. The aim of this service inside a given territory is to initiate and follow-up the on-site wastewater treatment devices. Implementation of the new public policy has been monitored for six years. On each survey field, semi-directive interviews were performed with the actors: users, elected representatives, the staff in charge of the service, and officials at the national level. According to the local context, the users have behaviours combining loyalty and defection. The study of the users’ behaviours faced with strategies applied by different SPANCs explains the contradictions that led to conflicts. Finally, the SPANC turned to be poorly legitimised owing to lack of consistency at the source, in scientific knowledge. In this condition, the global value chain of OSS will hardly be responsible.