2023-04-28 15:29:12
Measurements “crisis”, including new water restrictions, will come into force on May 10 in the Pyrénées-Orientales, a department affected by an exceptional drought, and the content will be specified the day before by a decree, announced the prefect, Friday April 28. This “crisis alert level”the highest, will concern “Têt and Agly territories”two rivers crossing part of this border department of Spain, he added, the day after a meeting of the local Water Resources Committee.
“I don’t want to be in a position that affects the production tool, that harms the trees”, underlined the prefect, Rodrigue Furcy, about agriculture, without announcing whether exemptions to the ban on irrigation were planned, in particular for fruit trees. There will be “additional restrictions” for certain sectors or activities: golf courses, car washes, sales of above-ground swimming pools or drilling, he specified.
Recalling that the current drought is “the most acute since 1959”the prefect expressed his desire to“avoid conflicts of use, conflicts of the water war” and of “manage the crisis as calmly as possible”. “We have reached a period where there is no more snow and where the vegetation absorbs a lot of water. The amount of water we have is what we have to manage until the end of the summer”at-il have you.
On Thursday, the president of the Departmental Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FDSEA), Bruno Vila, had estimated the damage for farmers at 200 million euros as a result of the current restrictions, adding that “in the worst case, it will be 400 million”.
“This department is living in anticipation of what some of the departments around the Mediterranean are likely to experience”had noted the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, before the Hydrological Anticipation and Monitoring Committee, which brought together the players in water management at the national level in Perpignan on Thursday.
Monday, Hermeline Malherbe, socialist president of the Pyrénées-Orientales – where the first big fire of the year in France covered around 1,000 hectares, on April 17 – had arrested the head of state, Emmanuel Macron, on a risk of “human catastrophe”asking “the establishment of a solidarity fund” for agriculture and tourism. Carole Delga, socialist president of Occitania, supported this request on Tuesday, announcing “an exceptional scheme of 1 million euros” of the region.
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