While we are in the middle of a drought, young environmentalists are sabotaging golf courses, accusing them of being big consumers of water.
If they pretend to be vandals for a few hours, they say they are fighting for a good cause. On August 5, environmental activists from Youth for Climate had already closed 31 irrigation valves. “Between watering a lawn and saving water so that people can live in the midst of drought, we made our choice“, they assumed on Twitter, saying that they believe that”in the current situation where territories already lack drinking water“lawn watering”is useless and harmful».
It is therefore quite natural that the Extinction Rebellion collective and the activists of Action Kirikou, in Toulouse, followed suit on August 10th. Under the hashtag #StopGolf, the latter have undertaken to turn off the water to the greens which, in this period of drought, are not subject to the same water use restrictions as other companies.
Read alsoDrought: the watering of golf courses is controversial
An incomprehensible derogation for these activists, who decided to counterattack. On the night of August 10, these activists claimed to have blocked holes with cement and damaged the lawns of two Toulouse golf courses, in Blagnac and Vieille-Toulouse. “Activists (including several from Extinction Rebellion Toulouse) denounce the PERPETUAL WATERING of golf courses in the midst of a drought“, affirmed the national collective on Twitter. The Toulouse antenna, for its part, deplored that the watering of golf courses is authorized by derogation “because of the cost of maintaining these luxurious grounds». «Besides that, the drought leads to total bans on irrigation in agriculture“, they continue, “to denounce the grabbing of water by this leisure industry for the most privileged».
So many actions in which the activists participate at their own risk and peril, the latter being able, if their acts are qualified as significant damage, to be sentenced to up to 2 years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros.
The director of the Garonne golf course, Nicolas Astier, considered at the end of last week to file a complaint. “These are people who are not well informed about our water consumption: we only water the greens, it is an area that represents only half of a football field”, he laments. “We have been paying attention to our water consumption for two months”he says.
