Thirty public swimming pools closed on Monday, according to Vert Marine

• This Monday, the public service delegate Vert Marine closed many swimming pools throughout France, due to rising energy costs.

• “If this increase were impacted on the price of admission to establishments”, it would be “multiplied by three.

  It is unthinkable!

  “, laments the manager.

• For several months, many communities have had to implement solutions to try to lower the bills for their swimming pools.

Bad surprise, this Monday morning, for the users of several swimming pools, managed by Vert Marine, who intended to take a dip.

The Némausa nautical stadium, in Nîmes (Gard), the Pic Saint-Loup swimming pool, in Saint-Mathieu-de-Trviers (Hérault), that of Saint-Dizier (Haute-Marne), the aquatic center of Montauban (Tarn- et-Garonne), Océabul, in Saint-Jean-de-Monts (Vendée), or even Aquapolis, in Limoges (Haute-Vienne) have closed.

Temporarily.

The reason ?

“The energy crisis”, points out the public service delegate.

“Rises in the cost of energy (…) no longer allow us today to manage the equipment in an economically balanced and socially sustainable way”, explains Vert Marine, in a press release posted on the social networks of the swimming pools concerned.

“If this increase were impacted on the price of admission to establishments”, it would be “multiplied by three.

It is unthinkable!

“, deplores the manager, who did not respond to requests from

this Monday.

This would raise the price to almost 18 euros the full price for Némausa, in Nîmes, for example.

“The equivalent of an annual energy bill” in one month

In the press release issued to users on Monday, the delegatee thus appeals to communities and the government, “in order to take the necessary and unprecedented decisions to return to bearable costs to respond to this urgent crisis”.

Exceptional help?

Energy works, so that swimming pools are less greedy?

Vert Marine does not specify which boosts would be possible.

As soon as solutions are found, promises the manager, the swimming pools will reopen “without delay”.

But from here, there, the splash will wait.

On the side of elected officials, the reactions are rather chilly.

The agglomeration of Nîmes, owner of the Némausa swimming pool, says it is shocked by a "unilateral decision taken without any prior consultation".

The community also specifies that Vert Marine told them "to face an unprecedented financial situation", and "to have paid in one month the equivalent of an annual energy bill".

In Montauban, Brigitte Barèges (LR), the mayor of the town, is also particularly upset against the sudden closure of her swimming pool.

“Green Marine is laughing at us!

“, pings the elected official, who mentions having already granted the delegate “400,000 euros in savings”, thanks to a drop in his fee and a small increase in the entry price.

Swimming pools are “energy-intensive”

However, Vert Marine is not the only structure to take such a decision in France.

Other pools face the same problem.

And the solutions implemented are numerous.

In the country of gold, in the Hérault, for example, the community has resolved to close "one day a week" the four swimming pools in the territory (Palavas-les-Flots, Lansargues, La Grande-Motte and Mauguio ), “to cope with the increase in energy prices”.

In Échirolles (Isère), since the beginning of July, the water temperature has risen from 27 to 25 degrees outside and from 27.5 to 26 degrees inside.

A month degree, depending on the city, is a saving of 7%.

In Paris, the town hall has chosen to renovate some of its swimming pools, which are particularly voracious, by launching energy renovation works, to better filter the water or change the lighting.

The objective is to reduce consumption by 30 to 35%.

And in Cabriès (Bouches-du-Rhône), the swimming pool simply did not open this summer due to soaring electricity prices.

“I had planned an increase in the price of electricity in my budget, but not as spectacular, confided, last April, Amapola Ventron (Génération Ecologie), to

The increase in my bills fluctuates between 256 and 300%!

In 2021, the swimming pool cost 100,000 euros.

I don't know how much it would have been if I hadn't decided on this exceptional closure.

»

Swimming pools are "energy-intensive" places, reminds

this Monday Patrick Apperré, elected to the metropolis of Brest and president of the National Association of elected officials in charge of sport (Andes).

"We must both heat the water, but also have tools that allow us to have clean air inside," he notes.

We must therefore treat the water, and the air.

Not to mention the emptying of the water in the basins, which is compulsory each year, and which, in the midst of the drought, forced certain swimming pools to leave their iron curtains down.

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• Planet

• Swimming pool

• energy

• Ecology

• Price

• electricity

• Closing