Is the threat of a summer drought receding? If the lack of water remains a worrying subject, it seems that the abundant rains of recent weeks have been beneficial. THE water tables are in much better shape than last year at the same timeaccording to the monthly bulletin of the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) published on April 16, 2024. According to experts, the situation is “overall satisfactory”. Good news as summer approaches, and which contrasts significantly with spring 2023, during which many regions were already on alert. “We are starting from a more favorable situation than in previous years, there is a stock of underground water, the risk is much lower” confirmed Eric Sauquet, research director in hydrology at Inrae (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment), to our colleagues at Franceinfo.
I have to say that France was largely watered by the rains in Marchbut also at the end of 2023. The Hauts-de-France department has indeed experienced intense and repeated rainy episodes in recent months, causing terrible flooding. Same thing in the east of the country, on a large western facade, but also in the south-east, where heavy rainfall helped to recharge the soil. According to the latest cartography ofDrought infoupdated April 18, 2024, 62 departments thus display groundwater filling rates considered high, 18 of them even display “very high” levels. : Morbihan, Deux-Sèvres, Charente, Charente-Maritime, Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne, Vienne, Sarthe, Indre, Cher, Yonne, Saône- et-Loire, Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Moselle, Hautes-Alpes and Bouches-du-Rhône.
A very worrying situation in the Pyrénées-Orientales
Two departments in the southwest nevertheless suffer from a cruel water deficit. The water tables of the Pyrénées-Orientales, as well as the Aude, indeed display critical thresholds. “The water tables in the west of the Mediterranean rim (west of Hérault, Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales) maintain lower levels than in March 2023” notes the BRGM in its bulletin. Same situation in the Loire and Haute-Corse, according to the Drought Info map. There is therefore concern for these territories, some of which have already locally implemented severe restrictive measures, and which are preparing for a very difficult summer season.