Drought or not, some residents of Châteauneuf-Grasse, in the Alpes-Maritimes, do not care about their water consumption. Hence the rant last Friday from the mayor of this town, who counts Silvio Berlusconi or Albert II, ex-king of the Belgians, among his VIPs.
“When I received the list of the thirty largest water consumers in the town, I realized that there were several large properties listed there”, testified Emmanuel Delmotte, without targeting any name in particular.
Between 1,000 and 2,000 m3 per week
According to statements by the elected Release, which revealed the information on Sunday, among these individuals whose properties extend over 20 or 30 hectares would appear “Prime ministers, kings, ministers, former presidents of the council, especially foreigners”. Of which Silvio Berlusconi, the former head of the Italian government, had confirmed the mayor.
The period concerned by these readings is spread over 17 weeks, from April to August 2022, when 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 nevertheless rose to 17,000 m3 of water, or 1,000 m3 per week”, denounced the mayor, comparing with the “barely 2,000 m3” of the municipal retirement home and its 120 beds. In some cases, their weekly water consumption has even reached 2,000 m3. And their real consumption was undoubtedly higher, some having unaccounted for private boreholes, specified the elected official.
If Albert II appears in this list of heavy 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 the ‘elected. Similarly, the former Belgian sovereign assured him that he had repaired the leak on his agricultural pipes.
Insignificant fines “for people like that”
“For people like that, the fines of 1,500 or 3,000 euros are useless”, assures the mayor. Hence the idea, in connection with the local water management delegate, the Suez group, to discuss directly with these large water consumers, to reason with them.
“We are working with gardeners so that they stop watering the lawns in the summer, or to favor micro-irrigation rather than sprinkling”, he explains, welcoming in particular the efforts of the local golf course which has invested two million euros to modify the irrigation system of its 50 hectares and use water from treatment plants.
“We will see if these efforts bear fruit”, hopes Emmanuel Delmotte, surprised to have been the only mayor of the 24 municipalities of the community of agglomeration of Sophia-Antipolis to express himself on this subject: “The list of all large consumers was sent to us, at the request of the prefecture. How come I’m the only one who seems to care? »
This position of Delmotte comes as the department is again placed at the drought level, even “reinforced drought”, the third of the four alert levels, after the observation of a rainfall deficit of 76% in March.
“Last year, we had to cut off the water to a farmer [de la commune]. Today, all my springs have already dried up. There will be cuts to be made if everyone does not respect the regulations. But who am I cutting off the water from? At 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 syndicate, that of Cannes”, explains the mayor of Châteauneuf-Grasse. “But it won’t last, because the lake of Saint-Cassien which feeds it is emptying. And after a while they will want to keep the water for themselves. »