HOW TO DEAL WITH DROUGHT IN FRANCE ?

The Minister for the Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, today receives the prefects coordinating the seven major basins of the country in order to encourage them to take measures now to "save water". Early restrictions to avoid the worst? "Anticipate!" asks the Minister for Ecological Transition to the prefects. Saturday, at the Salon de l'Agriculture, Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a "sobriety plan on the water".

Agriculture 45% of water

In France, agriculture accounts for 45% of water consumption, and up to 80% in the middle of summer. "It is by modernizing agricultural systems, by making them more efficient, that we achieve the greatest savings", assures Hélène Michaux, director of the program and interventions department of the Rhône Mediterranean Water Agency. Corsica. Micro-irrigation and drip rather than sprayers, instruments helping farmers to optimize their use of water… Technical solutions exist, provided they can be afforded.

In the context of climate change, these investments offer "a form of hedging against risk, since the farmer will be able to maintain his yields, even during very dry years", underlines Arnaud Reynaud, research director at the Institute National Research Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae).

The Minister of Agriculture also stressed that 60 new agricultural hydraulic works projects would be "commissioned" by June even if these works, including the controversial basins, meet strong local protests.

Respond urgently to network failures

It would also be necessary to renovate the old, undersized and sometimes poorly maintained water networks, which are an urgent project. "Knowing that a pipe is replaced on average every 160 years, the urgency is to invest massively in renovation", explains Guillaume Dolques, specialist in adaptation to climate change, at the Institute of the economy for the climate, he insists, while on average 20% of drinking water escapes from pipes via leaks.

Thanks to an extension of 17 million obtained in 2023, the Water Agency "launched at the beginning of January a call for projects of 20 million euros aimed at securing the drinking water supply of communities". Reduction of leaks, rehabilitation of dilapidated drinking water reservoirs, establishment of interconnections in rural areas, where municipalities can find themselves very vulnerable... The means implemented are numerous.

Accelerate the deployment of treated wastewater reuse

In Spain, 14% of water resources already come from the recycling of wastewater. This rate reaches 8% in Italy, against less than 1% in France. To make up for this delay, the Minister for Ecological Transition and the Minister for Agriculture have put forward an upcoming decree blowing up “regulatory brakes”.

Encourage sobriety, at all levels

Constrained or chosen, this sobriety is already at work in the Var, where more than half of the municipalities face a more or less high level of constraints. Friday, Saint-Zacharie and Riboux were placed at the level "reinforced drought alert" by the prefecture of the department. Ban on watering lawns, sports grounds and vegetable gardens during the day, ban on washing your car or filling your swimming pool...

In the Var, municipalities have decided to suspend building permits believing that there would not be enough water for future inhabitants...