Water polluted by pesticides: agro-industry wins time. By
Between Brittany and the Pays de la Loire, more than 90% of the water is in very poor condition because of pesticides. But it seems urgent to do nothing.
Deny reality, play for time, repeat that the conventional system is the only solution. This tried and tested strategy of the defenders of industrial agriculture continues to work. A recent Greenpeace investigation reveals how agricultural lobbies manipulate water management with the complicity of the state, particularly within the Local Water Commissions (CLE). These local government bodies – which bring together elected representatives, users and representatives of government agencies – have the onerous task of defining how water should be used and shared, and anticipating the availability of resources (the state of water tables and rivers, the risk of drought, pollution levels, etc.). This very large-scale planning is summarised in water development and management plans (the Sage).
To get a real idea of the manipulation and procrastination that goes on in these local committees, we can look at what has been going on in the Sage Vilaine negotiations over the last three years. Spanning two regions (Brittany and Pays de la Loire) and covering more than 10,000 km², it is the largest development plan in France. The planning task is therefore considerable and the challenges immense, as one of the objectives of the Sage is to achieve good status for the resource. However, more than 90% of the water in the area is in poor or very poor condition, largely due to pesticides.
To solve this problem, which involves astronomical clean-up costs as well as major public health concerns, a proposal has emerged, supported by dozens of local elected representatives from all political backgrounds: to stop treating maize in drinking water catchment areas. To show their vigilance on this issue, in the summer of 2024 the citizens decided to attend the debates of the Vilaine SAGE CLE as “silent listeners”. The FNSEA responded with a demonstration at the beginning of December, denouncing measures that were “extremely restrictive for agriculture and its long-term survival”.
The next meeting, on 5 December, astonished the federations, who heard talk of various exemptions from the pesticide ban and of the need for time for farmers for whom a change of model would be impossible. Concerned, the associations sent a letter to their elected representatives asking them to stand firm and organised a demonstration. As a result, the local committees closed their doors to them and met behind closed doors! “Who took this decision? What pressure did you give in to?” the citizens asked the president of the CLE, to whom they have not yet received an answer.
The associations are all the more surprised that the measure that has triggered all these debates concerns only a tiny part of the agricultural land – with a very distant deadline of 2040 – and a single crop, maize, mainly intended for animal feed and export. What’s more, mechanical weeding of maize, i.e. without pesticides, seems to work: in Ille-et-Vilaine, 6,000 hectares are weeded every year, whatever the weather. But what really counts is the time saved.
