Drinking water and sanitation

Water that has been used by man. We usually distinguish wastewater from domestic, industrial or agricultural origin. These waters are discharged into the natural environment directly or through collecting systems with or without treatment. We also talk of sewage or effluent.

Legal act regarding an agreement between the government or a local government and another public or private partner. There are several types of concessions: (i) the public service concession (method for the management of a public utility which consists in contractually entrust the management of the utility and the building of infrastructure to a dealer/concession owner acting at his own risk, and paid by billing the users of the service - (drinking water supply, sanitation, etc.), (ii) the public works concession (process for building public works characterized by the method used for the Contractor's remuneration, to whom is granted the right to exploit the work against payment for a specified time - (case of hydroelectric power plants with power at least equal to 4,500 kW); and (iii) the public domain concession (contract under administrative law granting to the beneficiary the right to use privately a more or less greater part of the public domain in return for remuneration).

A sanitation process including a public system for wastewater collecting and conveyance to a treatment plant.

All treatment processes that remove wastewater from an individual single-family home usually on the plot on which the house is built, without any wastewater conveyance. An extension (rarer) concerns the wastewater treatment of some neighbouring houses on private land. It is still on-site sanitation but it is regrouped. On the contrary, a group having a small collecting system and a treatment facility (spreading, filters, etc.) on community land is considered community sanitation. On-site sanitation is first defined as opposed to community sanitation.