Drought in France: City distributes mineral water to residents – 05/03/2023 – Environment

More than once a day, farmer Bruno Lopez, 57, renews his hopes and, seconds later, is frustrated when he accesses the application of the meteorological service in France in search of a forecast of rain.

“Now, it says it’s going to rain in ten days”, he points, with his finger on the cell phone screen. “I want to believe, but the truth is that, with each entry, this prediction reappears more and more in the future”, laments Lopez in the shade of a peach tree planted in the parched land of the farm where he also grows apricots, kiwis and apples on the outskirts of Corbère -les-Cabanes, in the Pyrénées-Orientales region of southwest France.

A historic drought has punished this French region that is close to the border with Spain, a country that faces a wave of drought and unprecedented heat for this time of year.

“The situation is already dramatic in that region, but if we don’t have rain in May, the problem will spread to other areas of the country, from Bordeaux to Marseille”, says hydrologist David Labat, professor at the University of Toulouse, in the south of France. .

The forecast is that the arrival of the European summer will make the picture even more severe. “There is already a wide awareness that this is going to be a very difficult summer,” says Labat.

After the scarcity of rain registered in 2022 in France and the lack of snow that caused ski resorts to close in the middle of the 2023 season, the situation in the Pyrenees-Orientales got so bad that local authorities implemented unprecedented crisis measures, with great impact. in the routine of the residents.

Three weeks ago, the reservoirs that supply Corbère-les-Cabanes and neighboring villages became so low that the town’s drinking water ran out. The city hall prohibited the consumption of tap water and started distributing bottles of mineral water to its 1,250 inhabitants. The bill is a 1.5 liter bottle per day for each of the residents.

“We have no alternative. It’s a health issue,” he told the Sheet the mayor of Corbère-les-Cabanes, Gérard Soler, during the distribution of water to residents last Thursday (27). “I had to borrow resources from other sectors for this unforeseen purchase of water. The cost is 3,500 euros [cerca de R$ 19 mil] a week, and it’s still not known for how long.”

On the days and times informed through an application, the pilgrimage takes place to the shed of the city hall where the water distribution takes place, according to the number of residents of each house.

Irritated, scared or resigned, residents come and go with their bottles for the week’s consumption. Forced to create emergency adaptations, they now also live with uncertainty about a future that is closer than they anticipated.

“I’ve always been alarmed by the debate on global warming and climate change, but I never imagined that I would experience something like this so soon,” admits Eliane Guinchard, 44, as she puts 24 bottles of water in the trunk of her car. “It’s very scary because we don’t know how this situation will evolve.”

In the only cafe in town, Thomás da Costa, 31, had to turn off the large traditional espresso coffee machine and replace it with small coffee makers powered by bottled mineral water. In homes, in addition to consumption, mineral water is now also used to brush teeth and wash fruits and vegetables.

A little over a month ago, the use of tap water to water gardens, fill swimming pools and wash cars or sidewalks had already been banned in the region. Any savings count.

“I can no longer take care of my garden, I have to program the use of the dishwasher and I can no longer take a shower when I want to. It’s a disaster,” complains Gérard Riborollo, 57. “It’s been almost six months since I’ve had a drop of rain. And, if something falls now, it won’t solve the problem either”, he laments, carrying his six bottles of water home.

Mayor Soler says he needs to “anticipate the next steps”. “If the taps run out of water, we will place 12 tanks of 1,000 liters of water at strategic points in the city so that the population can supply themselves with buckets for the kitchen, bathing and flushing”, he explains, who has already ordered the 12 tanks, but says he hopes they have another destination.

In addition to the lack of water, the Pyrenees-Orientales are also experiencing an anticipation of the burning season, favored by the drought and the drying up of the vegetation. With that, any fire focus literally becomes fire in the haystack, with rapid spread.

Since mid-April, the region has had three major fires.

On a visit to the region last week, the Minister of Ecological Transition of France, Christophe Béchu, assessed that the region “is experiencing in anticipation what part of the departments around the Mediterranean will probably experience” until the summer, when historically the drought in Europe.

The minister’s assertion is supported by a study released in March by France’s Office of Geological and Mineral Research (BRGM), which monitors the country’s groundwater.

According to the BRGM, three quarters of the water tables are below the normal level for this period of the year, with 20% being at a level considered “very low”.

“This is worrying because it affects the whole of France”, explains hydrologist Violaine Bault, from the BRGM.

While the general concern is in the dry rivers and the low level of the dams, Labat points out that the most serious problem is in the groundwater, because they are the ones that supply surface water.

“Each one liter of water on the surface corresponds to about 100 liters of underground water, but the fact that it is not visible means that we only worry when it is already late”, he assesses.

Climatologist Davide Faranda, from the University of Paris-Saclay, explains how the phenomenon of prolonged droughts and recurrent floods is related to climate change.

“The warming of the atmosphere due to the greater presence of greenhouse gases alters the wind regime and rainfall patterns”, he says. “What we have observed is that the desert regions, where the winds do not carry rain, are moving towards the north. And, in this case, the Sahara desert is moving towards the Mediterranean”, says he, who directs a center studies of extreme weather events.

According to Faranda, since 2017, scientists have observed that periods of drought have lengthened and are punctuated by episodic and violent storms. The problem is that the waters from these storms do not feed the aquifers in the same way as the softer and more persistent rains, in which the waters have time to penetrate the soil.

“Today we may even have the same amount of rain at the end of the year, but its distribution is different, and this storm water goes straight into the rivers.”

Last Friday (28), the governor of the Pyrenees-Orientales region, Rodrigue Furcy, announced a package of measures to preserve as much of the available water as possible – which needs to last another six months, until the end of the European summer. He says he wants to avoid “conflicts of use or a war over water”.

It seems an exaggeration, but the dispute over sources of drinking water erupted violently in France last March.

A protest by activists against the project of a huge reservoir of water for agricultural purposes in Sainte-Soline, in the west, turned into a battle with the security forces and ended with two people in a coma and dozens of injured, among protesters and police. Activists say the reservoir will privatize an essential natural resource, unbalancing access to water.

“When there really is a shortage of water, conflicts tend to become even more intense”, predicts hydrologist Labat.

The Sainte-Soline confrontation accelerated President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of a national water plan, in a context where the current availability of water resources in France is 14% less than ten years ago.

Studies point out that the volume of water in rivers and groundwater in the country should drop another 30 or 40% by 2050. “Nothing indicates that the situation will improve”, emphasized the president during the announcement of 53 measures to save the resource.

Among them are the creation of a progressive consumption tariff and projects that increase the capacity to reuse water resources. Today, only 1% of the water consumed in France is reused, against 8% in Italy and 14% in Spain. Macron’s target is to reach 10% by 2030.

The president also announced an investment of 180 million euros to contain leaks in the supply systems, and lines of credit for more economical irrigation systems.

In Corbère-les-Cabanes, Bruno Lopez says he is on the verge of losing the year’s production. “At this time of year, peaches, apricots and nectarines need to be watered every day,” he explains.

“If the water doesn’t come back soon, I’ll have to pull all the fruit off the tree to try to save the trees”, he says, in a desperate tone, before picking up his cell phone to consult, once again, the weather forecast.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}