Par Aline Duchene
Published on 31 Jul 22 at 8:30
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“The sea begins here, with us, in Lyon”, explains Julien Cottart, the president of the Diving for Future association, which is active in taking out as much waste as possible from the Rhône and the Saône.
In recent years, he has seen the number of waste explode in the waters of Lyon. Cars, bicycles, scooters and motors hide in the city’s waterways, especially under bridges. Another waste that is on the rise at the bottom of the waters of the capital of Gaul: glass bottles.
Invisible aquatic pollution
“Under the Lafayette bridge, there is the equivalent of twelve meters of accumulated waste, twelve meters, it’s about four floors”, deplores the president.
In everyday life, the majority of Diving for Future volunteers are firefighters at the Confluence barracks (Lyon 2nd). By dipping into the Rhône and the Saône for their interventions and their training sessions, the firefighters quickly agreed: in the water, it’s the waste disposal center.
–We dive regularly thanks to our job, but otherwise, this aquatic pollution is invisible to the eyes of the people of Lyon, they don’t see it because it is under water.
And they are not the only ones to make this sad observation. Since 2018, divers from the Odysseus 3.1 association have been working in Lyon and its metropolis to raise awareness about water pollution. They, too, carry out cleaning operations on a voluntary basis and even launch studies on the quality of the water.
–Clean up with arms and buoys
For all these volunteers, faced with the urgency of the problem and the lack of waste management by the authorities, it was necessary to act on its own to hope to clean up the Rhône and the Saône. This is how in 2021, the firefighters decided to launch Diving for Future to get the waste out of the water themselves.
Since then, they have already removed more than twelve tonnes of waste from Lyon’s waterways. Twelve tons lifted with bare hands using ropes and buoys. To this figure must be added the waste taken out of the water by the divers of Odysseus 3.1. They don’t count, but at the level of one cleaning operation per month since 2018, the number of tonnes of waste taken out of the water by volunteers could well be confusing.
Fishing for aids
On the side of Diving for Future, the divers carry out two to three cleaning operations per month, but the volunteers sometimes struggle to stay the course. The reason: a lack of human and financial resources.
There are several clean-up associations in Lyon, but Diving for Future volunteers are the only ones to have an annual diving permit to remove waste from the Rhône and Saône, issued by the Voies Navigables de France. Odysseus 3.1 also receives authorizations from the VNFs, issued after study, with each request made by the association to dive.
The City of Lyon and the Metropolis are aware of the cleaning operations organized by the volunteers. However, subsidies are rare for these associations. On the Diving for Future side, only the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône, the Régie de Verdun and the City of Feyzin help divers financially. Oxygen cylinders are lent by the Dive In store and the private group Derichebourg takes care of reprocessing the waste taken out of the water.
The authorities with absent subscribers
On the side of the authorities, we are offloading the problem. In Lyon, only associations have taken up the subject of waste in waterways. Why are they the only ones to take the problem of aquatic pollution head on? To understand it, Lyon news contacted the various authorities: City of Lyon, Metropolis of Lyon, Voies Navigables de France and Compagnie Nationale du Rhône.
Although some act occasionally with subsidies or punchy operations, none of these authorities takes care of regularly removing the waste from the Rhône and the Saône. Why ? Because it’s not in their area of expertise. It would seem that no actor has been appointed by the State to take care of cleaning up the waters of Lyon.
The city of Lyon closes its eyes
So, as there does not seem to be any legal obligation, on the side of the City of Lyon, the subject goes by the wayside. After inaugurating with great fanfare “Between Rhône and Saône”, a three-day festival with a budget of 750,000 euros, nothing is done to remove waste from Lyon’s waterways.
However, the description of the festival was intended to be committed, describing a new event “to protect the river and the river”. But the City explained that it did not collect the waste because “the rivers are not (their) domain”, indicating that this collection was the responsibility of the CNR and the VNF.
Most of the waste present in the rivers comes from the surroundings, from the upstream, from the tributaries. The Métropole and the City of Lyon do not collect waste from the rivers, because this collection is the responsibility of the river managers. The rivers are not our domain. It is therefore the responsibility of the CNR or VNF depending on where you are on the Rhône.
In terms of subsidies, the City does not pay any subsidies to Diving for Future or Odysseus to support their cleaning operations. She indicated to Lyon news having paid aid within the framework of the festival but did not specify either the amount of these subsidies or the recipients.
Odysseus 3.1 has confirmed to us that it has received funding from the City for three of their projects: animation workshops held during the “Entre Rhône et Saône” festival. Nothing to help them carry out their year-round cleaning operations. Ditto on the side of Diving for Future.
Mountains of abandoned rubbish
Despite the indications of the City, the CNR does not seem to be responsible for the Lyons watercourses. Firstly because it is not the manager of the Saône and then because it “is the concessionaire for the entire length of the Rhône river except for the City of Lyon, where the VNFs operate”.
Although the CNR is not a priori the actor in charge of pollution problems, it finances certain cleaning associations, such as Diving for Future and undertakes research work on aquatic pollution.
The VNFs explained that “the collection of waste in the rivers is not part of (their) missions”. They only remove what interferes with the navigation of boats. The VNFs indicated that it is the Métropole “which has general competence in terms of waste management”.
Contacted by Lyon newsthe Métropole returns the ball to the VNF and the CNR:
The Métropole does not collect waste from the rivers, because this collection is the responsibility of the river managers. The rivers are not our domain. It is therefore the responsibility of CNR or VNF.
An ecological disaster
But while the communities shun the subject, why are the volunteers busy with the task? Because this waste affects water quality. “Several scientific commissions are talking about this problem. Plastic materials degrade, move, then stay in the sea for life,” explains the president of Diving for Future.
–“Diving for the future” means trying to leave room for future generations: “In our association, we clean up every day during our rest periods. If I do this, it’s for my children, so that they don’t have to reprocess my waste later,” adds Julien Cottart.
Awareness when?
At each cleaning operation of Diving for Future, many passers-by stop, intrigued and curious to know more or to discover what is hidden at the bottom of the troubled waters of the capital of Gaul.
However, the association is still relatively unknown to the general public and it is struggling to recruit volunteers. But Julien Cottart and his team assure you: no need to know how to dive to lend a hand during cleaning operations.
To join them, simply contact the team, on the site internet de Diving for Futureor via their pages Instagram et Facebook. Want to give divers a financial boost? It is possible through their online kitty.
The most important thing, to avoid having to take out bikes and bottles of water in the future: to be able to inform the general public and put an end to this “societal” problem.
–Because if the waste does not come out of the water without the arms and buoys of the divers, it is through a lack of awareness that it ends up at the bottom of the Rhône and the Saône.
It would seem that awareness of the consequences of water pollution is still pending, both on the part of polluting passers-by and the authorities.
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