“Filling up” your pool under the contemptuous gaze of the neighborhood could be a source of torrid and endless water stories in the future. Lack of rain, drought, scarcity, cost, preservation of natural resources, ecological awareness, compliance or not with restrictions uses of water ordered by the authorities… The question has become a bottomless pit. But then, in a country with more than three million family swimming pools (inground and fixed above ground), is it still wise to use drinking water for something other than “drinking it”, such as it was reproached to residents of Gérardmer in the Vosges who saw their jacuzzis destroyed by strangers? Can we mobilize as many m3 of water for personal use when some municipalities will not even have any more this summer on the tap? Questioned by 20 minutesinternet users but also the Federation of Pool and Spa Professionals (FPP) wet the shirt to give us their feelings, observations and advice.
And the subject is delicate in the country of the private swimming pool. France is in fact the leading European market and the second in the world after the United States. water takes on its full importance. Some give up altogether: “We wanted to build a swimming pool, but in front The problems droughts represent, we abandon our project, explains Jean. It seems inappropriate to us to fill a swimming pool when even our farmers are suffering from lack of water “. Like him, other Internet users talk about civic-mindedness, the collective responsibility to have and testify to the “swimming pool project” postponed indefinitely.
“Non-essential use of water” reproached
Philippe Doutremepuich (without label), mayor of Causse de la Selle and president of the Local Water Commission (CLE) of the Hérault river in Occitanie, a region particularly affected by drought, is more reserved. The elected official who had strongly opposed the project of a golf course in Montagnac, explains to 20 minutes that in any case, force returns to the law and that filling prohibitions will be applied if requested. But the mayor points out the difficulty of enforcing them, for lack of sufficient personnel. He tempers:
“Saving water is an unavoidable reality. Afterwards, the specialists, of which I am not necessarily a part, think that it is not really there, with private swimming pools, that the big losses occur. But it is true that everyone must make an effort, ”underlines the elected official. Are private swimming pools stigmatised? “Yes, it is probably the non-essential use of water that they are accused of, a non-vital use, advances the president of the CLE. But it’s not a few tens of m3 in each village that will change the situation”.
A feeling shared by many testimonies wishing mainly to set the record straight. Like Dany who “would like us to explain to people who don’t have a traditional in-ground swimming pool that we only fill it once and for all during construction and that we never empty it, which would risk elsewhere to damage or even tear the waterproofing coating (liner),” he explains. Like the majority of testimonies collected, they remind us that a swimming pool does not empty to change the water. “Permanently treated, it stays clean”.
“We never empty the water from the swimming pool”
Properly covered to prevent evaporation in summer, a swimming pool consumes almost no water,” they say. “As confirmed by Christiane and many others: “I filled my swimming pool when I had it built ten years ago. Since then, in the summer, I add the equivalent of a bathtub (but I don’t have a bathtub) and my pool is a delight for bees, bats and the many birds from the surrounding area who come to drink there. “, she confides. For Ivan, the question doesn’t even make sense. “At the beginning of the season, a swimming pool contains more water than necessary because it has been fed by rainwater and there has been no evaporation due to the low winter temperatures. We should rather empty it than add it. The question arises only for new swimming pools (first filling) or small plastic swimming pools”.
Statements supported by Joëlle Pulinx, general delegate of the FPP, who recalls “that we must not be in the wrong fight” and that “private swimming pools must not become the scapegoat” for the drought. “The three million private swimming pools in France represent only 0.15% of water use at the national level, or around 40 million m3 per year,” she explains to 20 minutes. To get an idea of magnitude, water leaks on the French network represent a waste of 1 billion m3 of water per year. Banning the use of water in swimming pools will not solve the drought problem in some French regions “. On the other hand, notes the FPP, this “would condemn many jobs. The swimming pool sector represents nearly 60,000 direct and indirect jobs”, recalls the general delegate of FPP.
Buried water collector, changed filtration system, black tarpaulins, the gaze of gaspi hunting is elsewhere: on toilet flushes in particular, “unnecessarily too large” as well as “leaks on drinking water networks of the country”… A subject of reasoned and sustainable water management on which professionals in the sector have been working for a long time, wishes to emphasize Joëlle Pulinx. “The use of water for swimming pools has thus been reduced by 45% in 25 years thanks in particular to new, more efficient filtration and water circulation techniques, but also to smaller pool volumes, much less deep.
There remains the feeling of a “false fight against the owners of private swimming pools”, a societal fact that is more than ecological, it is explained, while some Internet users even see benefits for the planet. “It avoids travel to go to a water point, a lake, the sea, vacations by plane, and therefore it improves the carbon footprint”. “We don’t need air conditioning”, “it often allows firefighters to draw water during big fires”, “it’s also good for purchasing power”, we can read. The list of advantages put forward by each other is as long as an Olympic swimming pool.
Benefits? On condition that the swimming pool is well maintained, emphasizes the FPP, which is preparing to launch an information and awareness campaign via a brochure. Objective, to have good practices in order to save water with on the menu, the reminder never to empty your pool, to practice wintering without lowering the water level, to use a cover or a shelter swimming pool to limit evaporation, to limit the washing of filters to what is strictly necessary… Mobilization, initiatives, education, the price to probably pay for swimming without drowning in the drought.