On Monday, May 11, 2026, the Cour des comptes (supreme body for auditing the use of public funds in France) published its report “Environmental Policing of Water.” Several researchers from TSE indirectly contributed to this report, which for the first time assesses the impact of water enforcement actions on the quality of rivers and lakes in France.
Subtitled “A legal framework to be clarified and action to be made more effective to better protect a vital resource,” the report draws in part on research conducted by TSE researchers within the framework of a research partnership established between the Cour des comptes and the TSE Partnership Foundation.
At the core of the report, the evaluation of how environmental water policing is implemented was structured around three questions: whether the administrative organization and the applicable legal framework are capable of achieving the objectives set by law; whether the resources deployed are adequate; and finally, whether the measures implemented are effective and efficient, both from a preventive and a sanctioning perspective. Despite improvements observed in the organization of the relevant services, the evaluation leads to negative answers to all three questions and formulates a series of recommendations.
TSE researchers worked with the teams in charge of the report by conducting a study using advanced econometric methods to estimate the correlation between water enforcement actions and surface water quality. Their approach relied on rigorous causal analysis methods to isolate the specific effect of inspections while neutralizing standard statistical biases (for example, the selection of already polluted areas or seasonal effects). They compared changes in water quality (measured using 15 different indicators) upstream and downstream from an inspection point, before and after the implementation of the inspection, while controlling for confounding factors.
The study conducted by TSE was carried out by Sylvain Chabé-Ferret, Eric Mermet, Anouch Missirian, Arnaud Reynaud, and Alexis Bouteloup. Their findings are cited several times in the Cour des comptes report.
- Download the Cour des comptes report (in French)
- Download the study conducted by TSE researchers (in French)
- On the topic of water, you may also read our article “Water Under Pressure: Reconciling Water Conservation, Equity, and Investment.” (in French)
Illustration photo: Bluewater Sweden on Unsplash.
