A sign indicates “construction site prohibited to the public” in front of the land where a contested golf course is to be built, on March 14, 2024 in Villeneuve-de-la-Raho, in the Pyrénées-Orientales (AFP/Valentine CHAPUIS)
It’s still just a vast empty field, where two excavators are doing what they do best: digging holes and heaps. But it is the location of the future Villeneuve-de-la-Raho golf course, a controversial project during this period of prolonged drought in the Pyrénées-Orientales, against which a demonstration is being held on Saturday.
“Is this where they play golf?” asks a passer-by from a neighboring town in front of these wastelands, now kept away from the public by an orange plastic film fence and where a surveyor takes some measurements. “What a shame. We are told to be careful all year round, and then…”
The object of this disapproval: an 18-hole golf course and 600 homes, for around thirty hectares of buildings whose work has only just begun, but is already causing a stir in this department where there has been no rain for almost three years. .
“We have lost 60% of the rainfall over the last three years,” explains Nicolas Garcia, elected communist and first vice-president of the department, responsible for water. “To give you an idea, it would take 600 mm (of rain) to make up for all the delay, recharge the (groundwater) tables and at least 350 mm to get through the summer.”
View of the land where a contested golf course is to be built, on March 14, 2024 in Villeneuve-de-la-Raho, in the Pyrénées-Orientales (AFP/Valentine CHAPUIS)
However, since the start of winter, Perpignan, bordering to the north, has only received around fifty and the prefect has continued to extend and strengthen his restrictive measures on the use of water, in in force since spring 2022.
– Waste –
Hence some raised eyebrows at a golf course where the grass must necessarily be greener than the neighbor’s. Yes, but the watering will be done mainly using wastewater from Villeneuve-de-la-Raho, assures its mayor Jacqueline Irles (LR), who continues to defend the project tooth and nail.
“I’m told, +(golf) is doing badly at the moment, it’s the drought+. But it’s never been so good! It’s he who will provide solutions!”, exclaims the councilor of this small town of 4,000 inhabitants behind his beautiful wooden office at the town hall.
The mayor of Villeneuve-de-la-Raho, Jacqueline Irles, poses in her office on March 14, 2024 in Villeneuve-de-la-Raho, in the Pyrénées-Orientales (AFP/Valentine CHAPUIS)
For her, by drawing on wastewater, the 18-hole course shows “that it is not dangerous” and opens the way to the reuse of this resource for agriculture.
“In all humility, I should be thanked for having done this, for having anticipated at the time (by planning in 2009 the use of wastewater and low-consumption grasses, Editor’s note). And on the contrary… “She imitates the sound and gesture of childish crying, which she attributes to her opponents. “My arms are falling.”
Although the project should also bring around 200 direct and indirect jobs, it nonetheless provokes widespread outcry.
– “Doormat” –
The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau said he feared that the golf course deprived of water would resemble a “doormat”. A forum of 92 teachers and employees of the University of Perpignan denounced at the beginning of February a project “emblematic of an outdated vision”.
Opponents see this as a blatant injustice in favor of the privileged who will set foot on the “green”.
“We are sending a message that, in society, there are double standards. You are rich, the restrictions do not apply to you. You are an average citizen, you will be restricted in your consumption (d “water). So in terms of equitable sharing of the resource and equitable sharing of the effort, it’s a scandalous message”, fumes Jean Codognes.
A man fishes in the Villeneuve-de-la-Raho lake, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, March 14, 2024 (AFP/Valentine CHAPUIS)
His association, Catalan Ecology Country, filed a hierarchical appeal with the Minister of Ecology Christophe Béchu, against the extension, at the end of December for five more years, of a decree from the prefect allowing the expropriation of the plots necessary for the project.
On the other side of the D39 departmental road, which runs along the golf course, is the Villeneuve-de-la-Raho lake, a reservoir mainly intended for irrigation, half empty due to drought.
Opponents from all sides, politicians and associations, farmers and environmental activists, must meet there on Saturday mid-morning to go up to town hall. The mayor will not be there, the fault of a long-planned weekend.
© 2024 AFP
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