Dried up soils, lower prices ofeaurestrictions… Faced with a “ drought exceptional” and a ” historical situation that many territories are going through “, the Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne decided to activate the interministerial crisis unit, Matignon announced on Friday.
It will meet during the day, according to a government source. “This drought is the most serious ever recorded in our country” and “the weather forecasts suggest that the situation might continue over the next 15 days, or even become even more worrying”, underlines Matignon.
Worse with heat waves
“The exceptional drought that we are currently experiencing is depriving many municipalities of water and is a tragedy for our farmers, our ecosystems and biodiversity,” added the services of the Prime Minister in a press release.
This lack of rain “is aggravated by the accumulation of successive heat waves which reinforce evaporation and water needs”, explains this source. “Faced with this historic situation, the Prime Minister has decided to activate the interministerial crisis unit and calls on everyone to preserve our water resources,” writes Matignon.
Meeting of prefects
This cell must make it possible “to ensure regular feedback from the Department Prefects of the most affected areas, to anticipate the possible activation of ORSEC “water” plans for the agglomerations concerned and to coordinate Civil Security measures necessary (water supply to municipalities, delivery of drinking water, etc.)”, according to this source. It will also monitor “the impacts of this drought for our energy production and transport infrastructure and for our agricultural sector, in particular the livestock sector”.
Elisabeth Borne asked the Prefects to bring together, “from next week, in each area of tension, the local water commissions and, where they exist, the other local consultation structures for water management” in order to define “the prioritization of uses in case of necessity”. “Restrictive measures have been taken and will be taken wherever necessary in order to guarantee priority uses of health, civil security and the supply of drinking water”, specifies Matignon once more.
62 departments “in crisis”
On Thursday, 93 departments were subject to water restrictions, 62 of which are considered “in crisis”, the highest level of alert. Since Wednesday, Creuse and Nièvre have joined them.
The debate is raging on social networks around the derogations granted to golf courses who can still water their greens even when the department that houses them is in “drought crisis”. Serious consequences also for EDF which might further lower its production of nuclear electricity in the coming days, or even shut down a reactor at the Tricastin power plant (Drôme) due to the high temperatures of the rivers.
