While over 100 French communities are without drinking water, one green spot is not spared from the national water ban: golf courses.
However, climate activists in France are ensuring that golfers continue to feel the agony by filling the golf holes in the city of Toulouse with cement. The Extinction Rebellion targeted courses at Vieille-Toulouse and Blagnac.
The announcement comes as almost half of the EU’s territory is now under a drought warning or worse due to a combination of heatwaves and a chronic lack of rain.
According to the BBC, the organization termed golf the “leisure business of the most fortunate,” adding that “commercial craziness takes precedent over ecological rationality.”
In France, the restriction is enforced at the discretion of provincial authority. However, one gold path has already diverged.
In certain locations, French citizens are unable to water their gardens or wash their automobiles due to water restrictions.
Watering golf courses was prohibited in Ille-et-Villaine, western France, in violation of the exemption.
‘A golf course without a green is like an ice rink without ice,’ said Gérard Rougier of the French Golf Federation to the news website France Info.
France declared a state of emergency when rainfall fell by 85%.
According to the national meteorological service, the country saw its third-driest spring on record this year, behind 2011 and 1976.
According to the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, golf courses may consume up to 173 million litres of water each day during the summer months.
According to the UK’s Environmental Agency, the typical home consumes 349 litres of water each day.
The unusually dry circumstances are creating a “tinder box” for flames, putting portions of France at danger.
Wildfires are raging in the country’s southwest, causing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.