“We have entered the century of the battle for water,” says Jean Viard

The sociologist Jean Viard, director of research at the CNRS, answers us today Saturday March 26, with regard to the weekend of demonstrations on the subject of global warming and the pressure it exerts on farmers, in particular demonstrations in Poitou- Charentes against a large water retention project, “mega-basins”, as the opponents call them who are mobilizing until Sunday evening.

16 basins of this kind should see the light of day in the long term, but it has already started. A water reserve the size of seven football fields, for example, has been dug in the Deux-Sèvres, at Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon. And this divides the agricultural world, between those who advocate common sense – we fill basins in winter to store water and use it in summer – and then, those who reject, those who denounce a monopolization of water at the service of intensive agriculture from another era.

franceinfo: Jean Viard, common sense in the face of the rejection of an outdated agricultural model: is that what is at stake in this affair?

John Viard: We have entered the century of the battle over water. It’s going to be everywhere on the planet: with global warming and an increase in droughts, there is indeed a water battle. It can be on the Nile, as between the top of the mountains and the plain, since water falls on water and descends. That’s what we see. It is a general battle which requires a new water policy, its consumption, its distribution. Farmers account for almost half of water consumption in France. Basically, for drinking, we take 24%, energy is 22% and industry is 6%. So, that means that the farmers are at half the water consumption and therefore, it is obviously an absolutely gigantic issue.

And anyway, it is estimated that the rivers will drop by 10 to 30, 40% in flow because there will be less water, that is the backdrop. So, indeed, there are hundreds of basins in progress, more or less large. In general, in almost two-thirds of the cases, there are conflicts, either political conflicts or legal conflicts. There are often legal attacks against these structures because, in fact, the first tendency is to say we make a reserve, we take water in the winter and we water in the summer. It’s rational. It basically avoids really changing cultures. Even if the farmers have already reduced their water consumption by 30%, we must not act as if they were not attentive to this either.

And so, indeed, there is conflict on this question. Basically, do we change what agriculture produces, do we stop growing corn? Do we make sorghum? Do we have any new irrigation techniques? This is one of the possibilities. On the other hand, obviously, if we take in water, there is less water down there, in the rivers, in the wetlands, in the plains, and that changes the ecosystems. And it is all that which is in conflict.

And I think that at some point, we will have to negotiate basin by basin. There are places where things are going well. There are places where there are negotiations between the farmers, the peasants, because after all, if you have a garden, why would you have less right to water it than the guy next door who grows corn, when you are against corn? Currently, it is the law. All of these issues are before us and will be, in my opinion, very tense. And then, remember all the same, of course, Rémi Fraisse and the Sivens dam project, so it’s a subject that can go very, very badly.

The basic problem of this question is that water belongs to everyone and no one at the same time, is that what is at the basis of the subject?

The problem with water is that it is a common good, free. But after you pay for it, you have taps in your home, you pay for it because what we’re really paying for is the collection of water, its treatment and its distribution. But at the same time, it is a free good. And so, there are people who say: you have to let it fall where it falls because nature was designed for that. In one place, there are many, in other places less. Somewhere, it’s true, things will move, just as vegetation will move: the trees that are born and grow in Marseilles, they will grow in Lille in 30, 40 years, so the whole ecosystem is in movement.

Me, I plead for a Ministry of Civil Protection which thinks about all these questions which negotiates them, we are already in the midst of global warming. It should be a permanent subject of negotiations, of discussions, and indeed, obviously of modifications in part of the agricultural techniques, but also of modifications of certain ecosystems. You must not dream.