For Sylvain Barone, researcher in political science at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, the current crisis must lead to rethinking the priorities between different uses.
Interview by
Sylvain Barone, researcher specializing in water management at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) and co -author of the work Water policies, Published in 2019 (LGDJ), explains why all water users are not on an equal footing, and calls to integrate citizens in the discussions on the future of this vital resource.
The government lists around a hundred private municipalities of water currently. Is there a problem of solidarity in the face of drought?
Solidarity between territories is at work during these periods: the State organizes resource transfers, truck service … There are two sides in the public water management policy. One corresponds to crisis times, like the one we are living. The other is multi -year and is based on wide consultation, carried out in particular within the basin committees. These guide the actions of the six water agencies located in mainland France. We are used to appointing these bodies, where representatives of the State, local authorities and users, “water parliaments” sit. We present the strategies on the distribution of the resource, direct debit authorizations, planning of storage deductions …
But when the drought is there, it is a question of avoiding the failures of the short -term supply. The prefects then decide on emergency restriction measures, according to the evolution of the flow of rivers and the level of underground layers. These are the many prefectural orders that we have seen flourishing in recent weeks. The law indicates black on white the priorities: securing supply for drinking water, public health, civil security – fire fight -, aquatic ecosystems. But in fact, these texts include many derogations, decided in a way not always very transparent. They are the ones who nourish the controversies of the moment on the irrigation of agricultural land, golf courses …
Are all water users treated in the same brand?
not really. Certain economic players such as irrigators are present in the dry committees that the prefect consults before writing his decrees and manage to obtain favorable arbitrations. However, we have changed era: the current drought will almost become the norm, in the future, during the summer. We should take the opportunity of this rear episode to initiate an inclusive, democratic reflection on the uses and the sharing of water, before the next rains relegate the subject to later.
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