WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, OCL CA #336 - Regaining control of water - for the supporters of capitalism: a major challenge (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

Basins, nuclear power, polluted groundwater, capture and waste by
industry, water packaged in plastic and sold overpriced... all
constitute one and the same problem. That of water monopolized for a
centralizing social and industrial model, with the State as policeman to
protect the profiteers. ---- Neither basins, nor nuclear power, nor
pesticides...! Let's fight for quality drinking water, accessible and
managed by the populations. Let's fight to abolish water packaged in
plastic, absurdity among absurdities. Let's fight to make polluters pay
in order to repair the damage inflicted on groundwater by their deadly
practices. Let us immediately impose the closure of nuclear power plants
before they eradicate the life of rivers and rivers, and before they
fart in our faces.

Make no mistake: this is a class fight. The ruling class always manages
to escape the damage it organizes for its own benefit and to deceive
populations by inventing miraculous pseudo-technological solutions.
Let's stop it!

The fights against basins and against nuclear power open the way for us.

Libertarian collective Neither master nor basins
Contact: collectivenmnb@gmail.com

The texts "Taking back control of water from the capitalists" that we
are publishing opposite are taken from a 4-page spread on November 28 in
Niort during the second "Trial of the megabasins". It was produced by
the libertarian collective Ni maître ni Bassines, which, in the
Center-West, fights against projects intended to capture water for the
benefit of intensive and productivist agriculture, but also against
nuclear power, an industry far from to be "clean" as we are assured,
and, among other misdeeds, to consume a lot of water.

Water is necessary for life, although in hyper-industrialized societies
we tend to forget it. It seems important to us to highlight here the
limits that certain political and economic actors have crossed in the
use of this fundamental resource, the often irreversible effects that
such a choice entails and the difficulties that this situation poses for
the struggles to carry out.

Capitalism and its industrial system need water
Until now, the question of water has had little presence in France (and
in Europe) in social struggles; and yet, since the end of the 19th
century, industry has already given us an idea of what the future holds
if we do not react.
Until recently, despite the coverage given by the ("classic" and
militant) press, the fights for water were relatively little known to
the general public in France.
However, as water is essential both to human beings and to the
capitalist system, but it is a limited resource, the incessant search
for profit is necessarily incompatible with the lives of populations and
can only have serious consequences for they.
We see this first and foremost, of course, with climate
"warming-disruption": it upsets the water balance in many countries,
pushing - through droughts as well as the floods it causes - millions of
people in exodus. The question of migration is therefore inseparable
from that of water. And these climate refugees deserve our solidarity,
when the political class (including left-wing leaders) makes speeches
like "Immigration is a complicated problem, we cannot welcome everyone".
It is not immigration, the problem, but the industrial system which is
the cause!
We also easily see the damage of extractivism. An example of this is the
grabbing of water by the mining industry. Thus, for more than four
decades, the inhabitants of Imider, in Morocco, have been waging a fight
against the extraction of silver in their basement: the wells are
depleting the water table, and the population - already deprived of
water - is also faced with pollution and police repression. Remember
that silver is used in electronics, particularly to manufacture certain
flagship products of the... "ecological transition"1.
We can also cite Chile where, despite a drought which is becoming
structural, water is used to produce hundreds of tonnes of avocados
intended for export (notably to France), while the Chilean population is
forced to make supply water by tanker truck.
Plastics, textiles, computer equipment, batteries... we could go on and
on about products whose manufacturing requires overuse of water. An
overuse which, in more and more places, leads to a shortage for the
working classes at the same time as it enriches a privileged few.

The fight against megabasins has highlighted the vital importance of water
The fight against megabasins has raised (re)awareness of the importance
of water in our daily lives. Its abundance was a short-lived illusion:
the arrival of running water, that which comes out of the tap, in houses
is not that old, especially in rural areas.
At the beginning of October 2023, Hérault was seriously lacking water
and the situation in Mayotte was downright dramatic. Last fall and
winter, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, communities remained for months
without drinking water. And, since 2022, hundreds of municipalities must
be supplied with water - not only in the south of France.
In a context of increasing droughts, monopolizing water from groundwater
for a minority of farmers through the construction of megabasins will
inevitably have consequences on "tap water"... but as the State is there
to serve the interests of the exploiters, it ignores the opinion of the
Council of State - which, in 2023, confirmed the illegal nature of the
five mega-basins of Cram-Chaban, and canceled the 15 mega-basins of
Deux-Sèvres and Vienne. Because the State only understands the balance
of power.
The State is the great specialist in non-compliance with the law. Either
he outright violates it, or he modifies the rules on the sly (or changes
the form a little but not the substance of his speech), or he bends the
law more or less skillfully. In recent news, we heard the Minister (of
"Ecological Transition and Coordination of the Territories of France")
Béchu announce that the illegal megabasins would be destroyed at the
same time as the prefect filed a new appeal hand in hand. hand with
their promoters. Because the State prioritizes the financial health of
large companies over the health of the population; just as when a
dangerous product is finally banned, it always favors the sale of its
stocks to promote profit.

Pesticides poison tap water
The latest example is the water of the Vienne, which has been drinkable
by exemption2 since the end of September. The prefect has in fact
modified the "quality threshold" concerning the level of a supposed
carcinogenic fungicide by multiplying it by 9! Some areas were at 75
times the recommended threshold, so we interconnected the water networks
in order to dilute the fungicide, which increased its rate in other
areas. 400,000 people have been drinking this banned fungicide for three
years...
A survey by Le Monde3 showed, last year, that in 2021 in France 12
million people were drinking non-compliant water, drinkable "by
exception": the Agency regional health authority raises the potability
thresholds so as not to have to supply the populations if it declares
the water undrinkable.
The cause of non-drinkability? Pesticides. Among the most affected
areas, there are the wine-growing areas of Bordeaux, Charentes, Burgundy
or Champagne, as well as the northern plains with beet or potato
monocultures. Sometimes the excesses are not very significant, but often
they are incredible - and even then, we are not looking for all the
molecules.
The fight for pesticide-free water is therefore urgent. Not only do the
molecules continue to descend towards the water tables (see the Aunis
plain and the catchments which supply a large part of Charente-Maritime)
even if they have been unused for years, but above all the reduction in
the water tables increases their concentration, and hence the level of
pesticides.
Agro-industry and chemical manufacturers must pay and clean up
pollution. The shareholders of these groups must not continue to enrich
themselves by poisoning us.
When populations mobilize in Brittany, despite threats and assassination
attempts, the State and the agro-industry (particularly pork) are
obliged to act to reduce pollution. The nitrate content of water is
still far too high in this region, but if it has decreased by 15% in
twenty-five years, it is because only the fight makes things move forward.
The water must be drinkable, period!

The quintessence of capitalism: bottled water
It is disheartening to see the number of people who buy plastic bottled
water to drink. 25 million per day in France, while bottled water is
between 100 and 1,000 times more expensive than tap water, and what's
more, it is no better for your health: high levels of PCBs ( persistent
chemical pollutants) in "source" water, exemption for quality controls
on "mineral" water...
Paying hundreds of times more for water polluted just differently from
that of the tap, that is the ultimate submission to the industry.
Especially since the "bottlers" (a euphemism for the capitalists Nestlé,
Danone and others) appropriate and pump the water necessary for local
populations. Thus in Volvic4, where the prefecture complicit with Danone
authorizes pumping for bottling, despite the droughts: the inhabitants
are rationed to safeguard the profits of the large groups and, here
again, the State of course supports the hoarders.
Water is a sensitive subject. Certainly, when you do a quick Google
search, you come across sites claiming that "bottled water is safe".
Weird? By modifying the parameters of this "search engine", we obtain
results that are much less reassuring than those of bottled water
producers - yes, the presence of plastic in water bottles is real5. So
much so that some associations are calling for their ban. It rains
plastic in the mountains, this plastic will go well in "mineral" water
one day. As for "spring" water, if the importance of the pollutants it
contains depends on the research carried out on it...
Bottled water is an environmental absurdity: a bottle travels on average
300 kilometers and, "thanks" to the he industry that promotes and
supports it, the multiplication of waste is spreading everywhere.
Bottled water should only be used to supply areas deprived of drinking
water, when no better solution is possible.
Finally, whether it concerns industry, agriculture or tap water, the
problem of water resources is obviously not reducible to an accounting
examination of its available quantities. We are suffering the choices of
a predatory and destructive capitalism, the consequences of which are
becoming more and more visible as water becomes scarcer. So, everywhere,
it is vital that we regain control of this resource and its sharing!

Nuclear power sucks our air and water
Let us return to the relationship between the production of nuclear
electricity and the control over water to operate a capitalist economy
as described in the previous text.
Nuclear power is not the clean energy that pseudo-ecological technocrats
want to sell us. This is not a small thing at all compared to the
dangers facing the planet. Not only is this deadly mode of energy
production particularly vulnerable to global warming, but it aggravates
it and worsens its consequences. As if we weren't already going to lack
enough water without him, he sucks it out of us and pollutes the little
he leaves for us.
Nuclear power is particularly sensitive to the consequences of global
warming. In the event of a lack of water, it is obviously not possible
to stop cooling the nuclear reaction. Nuclear power therefore absolutely
needs the mega water reservoirs that we are fighting against. For
example, the Civaux power station really needs Lake Vassivière; France
negotiated with Switzerland to maintain the flow downstream of Lake
Leman because of its numerous nuclear power plants on the Rhône; we can
also cite the dependence of the Nogent-sur-Seine power station on the
Aube dams... Obviously, these dams are never presented as linked to
nuclear power, but as the solution to flooding problems for downstream
residents.

In addition, life is bad: when the waters heat up, more is needed to
cool them. There would be a solution: stop nuclear power plants when the
flow rate drops too much. But that would be bad for carbon-free energy
supposed to help us adapt to global warming.
Nuclear power plants use half of the fresh water withdrawn in France for
cooling: 16 billion cubic meters out of the 32 billion withdrawn
annually (data from 2018). Of course, this water is then (partially)
discharged into the same waterways - but it is significantly warmer when
it is discharged. According to Olivier Dubois, deputy director of safety
expertise at the Institute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety
(IRSN), "the heating between the water taken and the water discharged is
of the order of 10°C. The effect on average stream temperature depends
on stream flow." Concerning the Rhône, EDF estimates that the average
global warming of the river due to nuclear power plants is 1.2° in cold
periods and 1.6° in hot periods. This is much more than the estimated
consequences of global warming. For the Bugey power plant alone,
according to CEMAGREF (agricultural machinery study center), "hot water
discharges from the Bugey nuclear production center lead, up to 5
kilometers downstream from the power plant, to a increase in the
temperature of the waters of the Rhône by 6°C on average. The warming of
the waters is still noticeable at the level of the confluence with the Ain."
In fact, the term warming is a euphemism for thermal pollution which has
disastrous effects for fauna and flora, and more generally for
biodiversity. Let us incidentally remember that rivers tend to flow into
the sea or the ocean! Warmer rivers therefore affect the temperature of
the sea. The crooks who present nuclear power to us as the remedy for
global warming are ignoring this.
Finally, let's remember that water vapor is... a greenhouse gas.
Certainly less efficient than CO2, but when we see the quantities that
escape from the cooling towers... No one disputes that power plants
modify the microclimate around the power plants.
Nuclear power plants are not waterproof, in reality. Supposedly there
should be no porosity between the circuits. But, in fact, the water
released is slightly radioactive. What we find dissolved in water is
tritium which causes lasting internal radioactive contamination: it
attaches in place of hydrogen, radioactive iodine in place of normal
iodine, cesium instead of potassium, strontium instead of calcium, etc.
However, these elements irradiate us until their activity disappears,
and that can be a long time. For a long time, official scientists
considered tritium negligible: we evacuate the water we ingest by
peeing, right? Except that water is fixed in our cells, our organs, etc.
The nuclear industry releases millions of billions of becquerels of
tritium into the water and the air: "The more electricity we produce,
the more tritium we produce. This is why, for several years, tritium
production has been close to the regulatory annual limit," EDF admitted
in 2006 regarding its nuclear reactors. As tritium is difficult to
contain, accidental pollution also occurs.
Let us recall how the "regulatory annual limits" are determined. We must
not believe that this is the threshold below which there is no danger:
it is the threshold from which we consider that the disadvantages
(generally health) outweigh the advantages (generally economic) . Stated
more clearly, we consider that lowering the threshold would be too
expensive for the number of diseases potentially avoided. The regulatory
annual limit for drinking water was set by the World Health Organization
at 10,000 bq/l, in reference to the work of the International Commission
on Radiological Protection, which allows EDF to claim that it is safe.
But the WHO has never indicated that there is no danger below, and
what's more, this limit is highly contested. It implies a carcinogenic
risk 160 times higher than what is accepted for chemical pollutants.
Do not look on your water supplier's website: data on radioactive
contamination is not there. You have to contact the Ministry of Health
to try to get figures, and it's a big deal. Because, of course, the best
way to not find radioactivity is not to look for it. But CRII-Rad and
ACRO, the two independent research laboratories, found tritium in the
Loire, the Rhône, and the Vienne. Other radioactive elements are
released by power plants: cesium, carbon 14, iodine, manganese, cobalt,
etc. These elements are found by collecting aquatic plants. Worrying
levels have been noted downstream of Golfech, for example.
Kilometers of pipes are necessary to facilitate heat exchange in order
to cool the water in the secondary circuit. The walls should not
thicken. The cooling towers are therefore descaled at each unit
shutdown, and constantly during normal operation. And we must also avoid
the proliferation of bacteria which love humid heat. Other parts of the
nuclear facility also use and release chemicals. Nuclear power plants
therefore release quantities of chlorine, sulfates, boric acid, sodium,
ammonium, etc. For example, to talk only about the most well-known
products, the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear power plant has released in 2020
around 105 tonnes of chloride, 49 tonnes of sodium, 46 tonnes of
nitrates and 10 tonnes of sulphates. And if it is the prefectures which
set the maximum ceilings, EDF can request exemptions...
No, nuclear power is not the clean energy that the pseudo-ecological
technocrats want to sell us!

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4044
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