Drought in France: Climate activists concrete golf holes

However, the criticism is caused by the fact that there is an exception for golf courses, more precisely: for the area around the holes. According to the Ministry of Environment’s “Guidelines for the Implementation of Measures to Control Water Use in Drought Periods,” grass can continue to be watered there, but “reduced to the extent absolutely necessary” and only between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

The golf industry maintains that the exception is required. Without water, the greens will dry up in three days. Gérard Rougier of the French Golf Federation told news site France Info: “A golf course without a green is like an ice rink without ice”. Nationwide, 15,000 people work at golf courses.

The French government has already set up a crisis committee due to severe drought in early August. Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne’s office said, “This drought is the worst ever recorded in our country. He appealed to the public to use water sparingly. The drought is a “catastrophe” for farmers and the environment across the country.

Minister for Environmental Change, Christophe Pechu, warned that we should get used to droughts like the current one. But he also assured that drinking water would be given higher priority than industry in an emergency in a tense situation.