While some neighboring villages already have restrictions on the use of tap water, per person, it is a symbolic rant of the water war raging in several French regions. This Friday, with AFP, the mayor of Châteauneuf-Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes), reiterated his resentment against the personalities of his commune who use and abuse water. A village of 3,700 inhabitants where Silvio Berlusconi and Albert II, former King of the Belgians, are among the VIPs.
"When I received the list of the thirty largest water consumers in the municipality, I realized that there were several large properties that were listed," said Emmanuel Delmotte, without targeting any name. According to the statements of the elected to the daily Libération, which revealed the information on Sunday, among these individuals whose properties extend over 20 or 30 ha would be "Prime Ministers, kings, ministers, former presidents of the council, especially foreigners". Whose mayor Silvio Berlusconi, the former head of the Italian government, had confirmed to the newspaper.
The period concerned by these surveys is spread over 17 weeks, from April to August 2022: the region was then on drought alert, and prefectural decrees imposed drastic water-saving measures on individuals, particularly in terms of filling swimming pools or watering gardens.
"During this period, the consumption of some owners has risen to 17,000 m3 of water, or 1,000 m3 per week," denounced the mayor, comparing with the "barely 2,000 m3" of the communal retirement home and its 120 beds. In some cases, their weekly water consumption has even reached 2,000 m3. And their actual consumption was probably higher, some having private drilling not accounted for, said the elected official. As a reminder, a French household consumes an average of 120 m³/year.
Unnecessary fines
If Albert II is indeed in this list of large consumers, it is only on his agricultural green meter, as a producer of olive oil in particular, but not for his personal meter or the filling of his swimming pool, insisted Emmanuel Delmotte. Similarly, the former Belgian sovereign assured him that he had repaired the leak on his agricultural pipes. "For people like that, fines of 1,500 or 3,000 euros are useless," says the mayor. Hence the idea, in conjunction with the local water management delegate, the Suez group, to discuss directly with these large water consumers, to reason with them.
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"We are working with gardeners to stop watering lawns in the summer, or to favor micro-irrigation rather than sprinkling," he explains, praising in particular the efforts of the local golf course which has invested two million euros to modify the irrigation system of its 50 ha and use water from treatment plants.
"We will see if these efforts bear fruit," hopes the elected official, surprised to have been the only mayor of the 24 municipalities of the agglomeration community of Sophia Antipolis to express himself on this subject: "The list of all major consumers was sent to us, at the request of the prefecture. How come I'm the only one who seems to care? »
Already a high rainfall deficit
Sophia Antipolis has cities such as Antibes and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, which also host luxurious private properties. This position of the mayor comes as the department is, again, placed at the level of drought, or even "reinforced drought", the third of the four levels of alert, after the observation of a rainfall deficit of 76% in March.
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"Last year, we had to cut off the water to a farmer (from the commune, editor's note). Today, all my sources are already dry. There will be cuts to be made if everyone does not comply with the regulations. But who do I turn off the water to? Golf? To farmers? When there is no more water, it will have to be cut off for everyone," he warns.
"Today, we buy very expensive water from the neighboring union, that of Cannes," explains the mayor of Châteauneuf-Grasse. "But it will not last, because the lake of Saint-Cassien which feeds it is empty. And after a while they will want to keep the water to themselves... »