In certain places, you can now cross the Loire on foot. The drought is spreading and is also affecting our rivers, so much so that arms of the Loire are almost dry and the water no longer flows. In the one located north of Mocquard Island, between Saint-Florent-le-Vieil in Maine-et-Loire and Varades in Loire-Atlantique, boats are stranded on the sand and navigation is impracticable.
– Leonie Cornet
A desert landscape in which some residents venture this Thursday. “Usually, I cross by boat, but there I no longer have a boat since there is no more water, says Régine, who lives on Mocquard Island. The boat has become useless, so we put on our shoes and cross on foot. We are really at the heart of climate change.”
The fishermen first concerned
A drought that also affects amateur fishermen, like Didier. “It pains me a lot. It’s a sad year because we have seen the river empty and the arm dry up. Where we bathed, sailed and fished, there is only sand now .”
– Leonie Cornet
Yannick’s family has been fishing here for ten generations. He was able to observe the evolutions of the river, the floods as well as the recessions. “In 1949, the Loire flowed at 50 cubic meters per second, so it was even more worrying because there it flows at 95 cubic meters per second. This means that the Loire can theoretically still go down.”
It can still go down, but the other arm of the Loire, south of Mocquard island, is for the moment protected from drought. The prefecture announces that the Loire is on heightened alert to preserve drinking water resources.