After thirty-two days without rain, a record for a winter since 1959, France is in “ state of alert » en because of the low level of its water tables. The government assures that it is working to ” anticipate ” et ” to plan “ the necessary measures to limit the effects of this exceptional winter drought, as the Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, reaffirmed in an interview with Sunday newspaperthe February 26. Addressing the “prefects who coordinate the seven major basins of the territory” which he receives on Monday at his ministry before “all the prefects of France” the following Monday, the minister says he will have “every time the same message” to send them: “Anticipate! Take the measures that allow you to save water now”.
Mr. Béchu recalls that the country had not experienced such a lack of precipitation over this period since the start of rainfall measurements by Météo-France and that it was already affected by an episode of severe drought in the summer of 2022. What, according to him, makes “The situation is more serious than last year at the same time” throughout the territory and that “we are therefore in anticipation, already in a state of alert”.
“From the first half of March, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, will activate an interministerial unit responsible for anticipating the risks and measures to be taken in the event of drought, mobilizing all the State services concerned”advances Christophe Béchu, the day after Emmanuel Macron announced the launch of a “water sobriety plan”. “The first answer is sobriety and innovation”summarizes the Minister.
Towards “a sobriety plan on the water”
The day before this interview with the Minister for Ecological Transition, it was the Head of State himself who stepped up to the plate on the subject, calling from the aisles of the Agricultural Show to apply “a sobriety plan on the water” on the model of “energy sobriety”, pour “collectively saving water”.
“We know that we will be confronted, as we [l’]was last summer, to scarcity problems [d’eau] : rather than organizing under duress at the last moment with conflicts of use, we must plan all of this”explained Emmanuel Macron, pleading for “better harvest rainwater”, “have fewer leaks in water networks” et “better distribute the use of drinking water according to users”especially in “continuing to produce and invest in hill retentions”.
Currently “four departments are experiencing restrictions [d’utilisation de l’eau et sont placés en alerte sécheresse]: Isère, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Pyrénées-Orientales » while “ten other departments are under surveillance”, specifies Christophe Béchu on Sunday.