A demonstration is taking place today Saturday March 16 in the commune of Villeneuve-de-la-Raho, in the east of the Pyrénées-Orientales department, to oppose a real estate and hotel project with a golf course. The work began at the end of last year, and what focuses the criticism from opponents is obviously this golf course in a department which has been experiencing the worst drought in its history for two years. A project launched around twenty years ago, against which there have been plenty of appeals.
franceinfo: The work has just started, but there is still this opposition, Jean Viard…
Jean Viard: On the one hand, there is the path of the law which has been followed, and then on the other side, there is the path of the climate which is accelerating and which is unpredictable. It’s not the ancients versus the moderns. In global warming, there are several things: there is the fight against global warming which is a real massive fight, and then there is adaptation, how are we going to live?
The cultural codes, from countries 300 or 500 kilometers further south, are moving, so basically, in the region of Spain, they are in the situation of southern Morocco, and southern Morocco is in the situation of Tamanrasset. And that means one thing: there are cultural codes built by civilizations for a very long time, to live with a warmer climate. So the question of adaptation is: are there golf courses in the south of Morocco, and if there are, how do they do it?
The mayor of Villeneuve-de-la-Raho, Jacqueline Irlès, as the promoter of this project, explains that yes, there are solutions. The water used to water the golf course will come from a wastewater treatment plant. It’s reuse water as they say.
Jacqueline Irlès on France Bleu Roussillon, this week: “I find that this project has never been more timely, because it anticipated the phenomenon. For years, we have been working on water needs, on water recovery, and on anticipation of drought problems. I am convinced that there are solutions, as other countries have adopted them, and why us, right?
Jean Viard, reuse water, is that the solution?
This is what we said at the beginning, but the question is that, as we are going to run out of water, this reuse will become widespread, and therefore will it be used for agriculture, for daily life, for industry or for leisure? And I think that what we don’t know in France is first of all having a legitimate place of arbitration, that we recognize each other, by saying these people are the reference, to know whether there is a problem or not, and where does the democratic debate take place?
Because basically, by irrigating basin, there should be a debate, and we say: well wait, maybe we will remove the corn, we will put something else, we will put hemp, for example , which consumes much less water, or perhaps if we want to develop tourism which represents a lot of jobs, we will protect the golf course. But at that time, we are changing agriculture.
On this subject, the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, underlines exactly what you are telling us: “The priority of water use, he said, can never be golf, and therefore operators must know that they are taking the risk of having a golf course that is a doormat, and that perhaps they can invent a new model on golf in this way.” . Is it a little more than a joke then?
Jean Viard: Yes, it’s more than a joke, afterward, he is Minister of Agriculture, so he defends the interests of agriculture, it’s his job, he has an interest in doing it. But I consider that there are different types of uses. It is not illegitimate to have a golf course which will attract hundreds of jobs, residences, etc. around it.
Is it the question of the scale of priorities?
Yes, indeed, if in this area there is water-saving agriculture, but it needs it, we give it priority, I completely understand that.
And besides, the mayor of the town, Jacqueline Irlès, also explains that there are no agricultural operations, and that it has been an area that has been fallowed for years. And golf, Jean Viard, is also a symbol, seen as a sport of rich people. Moreover, for the European campaign, La France Insoumise has a poster at the moment: “Golfers vote, and you ?” Is there also this symbol in this case?
There are around 500,000 golfers in France, it’s not like 30 or 40 years ago, where we always said the taxman visits the golf car parks to find out who isn’t paying their taxes, today we don’t. is no longer there. So there is a form of democratization, one form, and on the other side, indeed, there is the question of water. These are two subjects, and they should not be mixed, because I do not like people to attack minority practices. Yes, there are minorities, religious, political, sporting, there are social classes who are better off than others. Afterwards, people have the right to live as they want.
I think we have to be very careful not to be in a society where other people’s lives are forbidden. Afterwards, we actually play golf where, how we distribute water, between agriculture, daily life, industry and leisure. Because basically, golf is a bit like swimming pools, it’s: at one point, we could say: well, leisure, basically, it’s useless, you have to do very attention. A society built on leisure, I do not consider leisure to be secondary. So let’s stop attacking social groups all the time. I think it’s a bad path, and I think we shouldn’t choose it.