If many French departments are hit by drought and are preparing to face a long summer, there are a dozen of them not to raise an alert, and that’s good.
After a scorching month of June, the hottest ever recorded in the world, many are wondering about the – very real – risks of seeing the drought gaining ground in France. However, some departments resist and display a rather decent filling rate of their water tables. Let’s see where it gets stuck and where we can breathe, for now.
Many prefectural decrees of water restrictions taken everywhere in France
More than ever, the authorities closely monitor the level of groundwater in France and decide on certain necessary measures, by issuing water restriction decrees everywhere. These decrees, listed on the Propluvia platform (attached to the Ministry of Ecological Transition), are now affecting dozens of departments in the country, to varying degrees.
Several departments have been the subject of a red level order, which corresponds to an area in crisis, within which drastic measures are taken. Here, non-priority withdrawals are stopped (even those for agricultural purposes), and only withdrawals for priority use are authorized (health, drinking water, safety and civil security).
A large part of the Pyrénées-Orientales department is affected by such a decree. Its neighboring department, Aude, is also in its southern part. Oise, Loiret, Vendée, Loire-Atlantique, Loir-et-Cher and even Sarthe are also partly under prefectural decree with a red level. From what we have been able to see, these restrictions run, for the areas concerned, until the end of autumn, sometimes even until next winter, to allow time for the slicks, if the weather is good enough lenient, to fill up a minimum.
The number of departments with very low water tables continues to increase
Another map, drawn by the info-secheresse.fr site using data from 1,843 observation stations, classifies the French departments according to the filling rate of their water tables. In recent hours, the number of departments whose level is considered “very low” has approached twenty.
Thus, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes, Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Hérault, Gironde, Lozère, Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Isère , Jura, Côte-d’Or, Haute-Marne, Indre, Cher, Nièvre, Loir-et-Cher and Essonne are classified in the category of departments where the water table is at a level ” very low “.
Fortunately, several parcels of our territory are, for the most part, sheltered from an imminent drought. Better still, some see their water tables display a very high, high, or moderately high level, such as Haute-Garonne, Ariège, Hautes-Pyrénées, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Bouches-du-Rhône, Haute-Corse, Corrèze, Deux-Sèvres, Vendée and Morbihan. Most of these departments benefited from a rather wet month of May.
Source : Propluvia, Info-Drought
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