Drought: the golf courses of the South-West are dribbling to save water
2023-05-19 18:45:00
Spikes stuck in the short grass, the hygrometer shows 24.9% in this spring afternoon, after a rainy night. It’s more than enough for billiards on green N.17, where golfers follow one another on the wooded shores of a small lake.
“We try to have a value between 12% and 15% and we will constantly adjust the watering (…), do not water for many days to come down”explains to AFP Jean Ruas, 31-year-old field steward.
“Greenkeeper” of this Landes golf course, he estimates between 30% and 40% per year of water savings made thanks to this irrigation system inaugurated in March: retractable sprinklers, new pipes, latest generation grasses, fine management of watering with a GPS map on a touch pad…
That is an investment of 1.2 million euros with a subsidy of 300,000 euros from the Adour-Garonne Water Agency, which has just signed a “progress contract” in April with the French Golf Federation to support efforts of the 140 courses in the south-west quarter of France.
“The golf courses knew how to react”
This agreement, already in force in the Loire-Brittany and Seine-Normandy basins, is accompanied by quantified objectives: to reduce water withdrawals by 30%, or 700,000 m3 each year.
A technician measures the humidity of the green with a sensor at the Seignosse golf course, on May 16, 2023 in the Landes.Photo AFP / GAIZKA IROZ.
It promotes good practices: watering at night, making the most of “alternative waters” (runoff water, waste water), or even promote biodiversity and the reduction of phytosanitary products.
“These are things that we are trying to replicate at the level of France”assures Julien Cabanes, project manager in water management at the Federation.
Eight golf courses have already been financially supported by the Adour-Garonne water agency since 2019, which has saved more than 150,000 m3 of water.
This initiative “going in the right direction”believes Alain Dupuy, hydrogeologist at the National School of Environment, Geo-Resources and Sustainable Development Engineering (Ensegid) in Bordeaux. “Any savings on levies are welcome”he argues, judging the objective of 700,000 m3 “not negligible“.
Automatic watering of the lawns of the Seignosse golf course, May 16, 2023 in the Landes.Photo AFP / GAIZKA IROZ.
Golf courses “may have been criticized previously, it’s very good, they knew how to react, adapt”he notes.
This sport and its 740 courses in France are particularly singled out: during the drought of the summer of 2022, radical environmentalists had vandalized Toulouse land by filling in the holes. In the Pyrénées-Orientales, a department overwhelmed this year by drought, an association is questioning a golf project near Perpignan, declared of public utility in 2019.
Wastewater treatment plant
“We can obviously have a golf activity that respects the environment”responds Christophe Rondelé, director of the Seignosse golf course.
And to ensure that it can reduce water consumption by 95% in the event of a crisis, by watering only the greens, “the heart of the reactor”. These pampered lawns represent only 1% or 2% of the land but their maintenance ensures the quality of the game.
Golfers on the Seignosse golf course, May 16, 2023 in the Landes.Photo AFP / GAIZKA IROZ.
“By keeping our green in working order, all the equipment will be saved”he argues, referring to around thirty jobs and 3 million euros in turnover.
This 18-hole golf course, managed by the Resonance group, asked to be connected to the neighboring wastewater treatment plant with the idea of giving “second life” water treated and currently discharged into the ocean, adds Nicolas Ilbert, director of the Atlantic-Dordogne delegation of the Water Agency, while France, very late in this area, has recently set itself a target 10% wastewater reuse by 2030.
“The margin is huge”summarizes this manager who salutes the awareness of the golf industry.
“We now feel a strong desire to work on environmental impacts”he welcomes. “There are times when everyone has to make an effort.”