The former presidential candidate regrets that the measures presented by the president do not concern more “large water consumption” and in particular agriculture. “To put aside the sector which consumes 80% of the water in the summer is an absolute denial”, laments the ecologist.
“A leap forward”. This is how Yannick Jadot qualifies the water plan presented by Emmanuel Macron this Thursday in Savines-le-Lac, in the Hautes-Alpes, to meet the challenges of drought and global warming.
“It’s not a sobriety plan for water. It’s a plan that maintains drunkenness in water consumption in our country”, castigates the former candidate Europe Ecology-The Greens (EE-LV ) in the presidential election.
“Pressure on the French men and women”
For the MEP, the announcements of the President of the Republic are in line with the decisions taken in terms of energy last winter:
“We put a lot of pressure on the French and the French (…) but everything related to large water consumption, especially agriculture, is completely left out”.
Regarding farmers, Emmanuel Macron called on them not to “privatize water”, returning in particular to the subject of mega-basins. These reservoirs pump water from groundwater during the winter so that farmers can water their crops in the summer. Ecologists are upwind against this system, seeing it as a privatization of a common good.
For his part, Emmanuel Macron wants to better share future basins and condition them on “significant changes in practices”, starting with water savings and a reduction in the use of pesticides by farmers.
“Absolute Denial”
“It is useless”, denounces Yannick Jadot, regretting that for years, “we have been putting hundreds of millions of euros to support these voluntary approaches that the actors avoid, circumvent, postpone”.
“We have 32 days without rain this winter, around twenty departments which are already on drought alert,” he warns.
For him, “putting aside the sector which consumes 80% of the water in summer is an absolute denial”. The MEP nevertheless approves of certain measures such as the reuse of waste water, or the establishment of progressive water pricing. “It’s going in the right direction,” he said.
However, “this is not the factor that will allow us to deeply reduce our water consumption”, according to the ecologist. He mentions agriculture again and insists: “To set aside the sector which consumes 80% of the water in the summer is an absolute denial”.
