A total of 1,022 municipalities hit by drought in 2021 and 2022 have been recognized as being in a state of natural disaster, according to a decree published Friday in the official journal.
This text, which concerns municipalities spread across 59 departments, paves the way for taking charge of the damage caused to buildings, mainly houses, by the phenomenon of shrinkage-swelling of clays (RGA), aggravated by drought.
In France, shrinkage-swelling of clay affects approximately one in two housesor more than 10 million homes which are threatened with cracks in the event of excessive drought.
According to the federation of insurers, France Assureurs, the cost of drought on individual homes will be around 2.5 billion euros in 2022, a record since the creation of the natural disasters regime in 1982.
Drought will be more and more expensive in the years to come
While some voices have criticized the difficulties in obtaining compensation, particularly for those whose municipality has not been the subject of a natural disaster order, the government decided at the beginning of the year to relax the conditions of acknowledgement.
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Drought will be more and more expensive in the years to come, France Insurers has previously warned, for whom by 2050, the cost of drought-related compensation could triple compared to the last thirty years.
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