Hervé Mariton is a former overseas minister and LR mayor of Crest.
The summer is very dry.
Water is lacking to satisfy all needs.
Sobriety in use is essential;
reflection and action are called upon to prepare for the future.
What future ?
The proposals and decisions of recent days illustrate the lines of debate that often structure ecological issues.
And some old demons of “French evil” spring up, however important and demanding the stakes may be.
The race to the bottom: if someone is to be constrained, others must be too.
The rivers are low and this leads to irrigation bans, penalizing farmers.
In the same place, the water tables may be higher than in previous years (in Crest, higher than the levels of 2020, 2019 and 2018), but urban use will also be constrained.
The mayor of Colmar complains of watering bans which he considers unjustified given the abundance of its water table.
At the time of confinement, we had already observed that the need not to move too much in town (1 km) had to go, without much health justification, with that of not entering the mountains and neighboring forests either.
The misfortune of some requires the misfortune of others.
Moreover, many groundwater levels are abnormally low this summer.
But not all.
Is it fair to apply the same rule?
Perhaps the ban could trigger compensation and insurance.
Already at the time of the Covid, an activity totally stopped by the administration became more profitable than a partial activity.
Herve Mariton
The state of the rivers can prevent activities or justify constraints.
First, be careful not to confuse.
Canoe rental companies in the Drôme were considering limiting or stopping their activity.
There was talk of banning it… Curious idea of wanting to ban what you can't do!
And as we would ban canoeing on the Drôme, we had to ban canyoning on the mountain streams, which were suitably loaded with water.
If Peter is bothered, it is only right that Paul be...
Perhaps the ban could trigger compensation and insurance.
Already at the time of the Covid, an activity totally stopped by the administration became more profitable than a partial activity.
When France embarks on a dead end!
The State asserts itself, in the present situation, both ambitious and fastidious.
The ambition to respond to immediate difficulties and a challenge for the future is welcome.
But is the state in the best position to manage the water issue?
Basically, if its management is the responsibility of local communities, the water police, it is up to the State.
It is neither consistent nor empowering.
These days, the State assumes a word of crisis (it thus reinforces its legitimacy), but is it not rather up to elected officials to assume the arbitrations of use, the fine tuning of local decisions, and not simply by expressing their opinion at the request of the representative of the State, but by deciding?
The State could be expected on a national strategy;
it prohibits the leveling of swimming pools.
The litrage in question is ridiculous, the measure described by the technicians as dangerous for the very structure of the basins.
Control impossible, except call for denunciation by the neighbors...
Where does this widespread decision in the departments come from?
We read that it would be a pedagogical measure.
Then it would no longer be a constraint.
And the pedagogy of sobriety in use – certainly justified – would gain a lot from being expressed, to adult citizens, through more relevant messages.
The state is doing its best, weighted down by our bad reflexes.
It is also contested by those who see in each environmental news the opportunity to propose an ecological revolution.
This is another of our character traits, the temptation of ideological drift.
Herve Mariton
The subject of water management is important enough to enter into structured, nuanced explanations, adapted to the strength of the issue and to the differentiation of resources, uses, in varied local situations.
The state is doing its best, weighted down by our bad reflexes.
It is also contested by those who see in each environmental news the opportunity to propose an ecological revolution.
This is another of our character traits, the temptation of ideological drift.
"We must change the model" is the leitmotif.
We should return to local subsistence agriculture.
Who will feed the cities?
In my region, it is not uncommon for alternative farmers, urban retraining, to have acquired abandoned, inexpensive land, poorly supplied with water.
This remark does not dispense with noting the seriousness of the situation and seeking solutions, with the help of reason and science.
But France refrains from examining the interest of GMOs in reduced water requirements.
Some want to assign a legal personality to the rivers which could defend themselves, take legal action.
This naturalistic animism is not likely to reinforce the responsibility of decision-makers made of flesh and blood.
There must be a way, for water, as for all ecological challenges, in order to act with the greatest respect for the responsibility of the actors.
The few defects of the French temperament do not help to explore it, favoring authority over responsibility, uniformity over freedom.
Beyond ideological assertions or announcements without concrete effect, this path is a necessary passage.
And, everyone having to do their part, I would point out that my house, in Crest, is not connected to the city's water network, which constitutes a very effective pedagogy of sobriety.
