Climate activists in southern France have filled golf course holes with cement in a protest against golf greens being exempted from otherwise strict watering bans amid the country’s severe drought.
The BBC reports that the group targeted sites near the city of Toulouse, calling golf the ‘leisure industry of the most privileged’.
The exemption of golf greens has sparked controversy as 100 French villages are short of drinking water.
While the activists said the exemption showed that ‘economic madness takes precedence over ecological reason’, Gérard Rougier of the French Golf Federation told the France Info news website said that ‘(a) golf course without a green is like an ice-rink without ice’, adding that 15 000 people worked in golf courses across the country.
Golf officials say greens would die in three days without water.
The recent action targeted courses in the towns of Vieille-Toulouse and Blagnac. It was claimed by the local branch of the Extinction Rebellion movement.
So far only one area, Ille-et-Villaine in western France, has diverged from the exemption, banning the watering of golf courses.
The BBC reports that the Green mayor of the south-eastern city of Grenoble city, Éric Piolle, criticised the exemption, saying: ‘We continue to protect the rich and powerful.’
[Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/golf-green-golf-courses-landscape-462323/]