The heat wave, which came to supplant the health crisis for a summer, is worrying in that it will increase over the years. The catastrophic scenario of global warming that seemed distant to us, by 2050, or even beyond, is therefore knocking at our door now.
Not a day goes by without a forest fire breaking out or a department being declared in a state of water restriction – 93 on the meter last Friday, to varying degrees. The most astonishing, in radio or TV reports, are these French people of all generations, in the city, in the countryside, who now accuse, with one voice, climate change. This scourge, agitated in the past by a handful of ecologists, imposes itself in public opinion in the same way as purchasing power, employment or security.
This is why Elisabeth Borne set up an interministerial crisis unit on Friday. Until then, it was the prefects of the department who had the hand to decide on any measures to restrict the use and consumption of water. It is not only a question of giving the illusion of a mobilized government, taking the opposite view of the disaster of the heat wave of 2003.
Agriculture, nuclear industry, holidays, all sectors are affected. The Prime Minister has sounded the mobilization to try to deal with the emergency. “If we don’t reduce our consumption habits, we will have repeated episodes”warned Christophe Béchu, the Minister of Ecological Transition, no doubt eager to put out the start of the fire on the supposed negligence of governments.
The water tables were at their lowest, the repeated heat wave did the rest. Predictable or not, a whole water management policy needs to be rethought. The water reservoirs are insufficient: by way of comparison, Spain has half as many water resources as France but has set up reservoir capacities five times greater. France recycles less than 1% of its wastewater compared to 8% in Italy, 15% in Spain, 90% in Israel.
Yes, the climate challenge will be imposed from the start of the school year. There is a long way to go. All energies, including the expertise of ecologists, are welcome. For a major threat that calls for transcending political currents.