The heavy rains that have been falling on the Basque Country since Wednesday, August 17 in the evening are already having consequences. The Basque Country agglomeration hoists the purple flag on the 34 beaches of the coast and at the lake of Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle. The rain that does not stop falling has caused a bacteriological pollution in water.
“An exceptional situation”
The measure taken by the Basque Country conurbation is substantial. Its application, Kalilo, intended to inform bathers of the conditions and regulations of bathing areas in the Basque Country, places a purple flag on all bathing areas on the coast, not to mention the lake of Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle.
Because every morning, from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m., analyzes are carried out in the bathing areas. This Thursday morning, bacteriological pollution exceeded the acceptable thresholds to authorize swimming. Result at 10 a.m., none of the 35 lakes in the Basque Country could open.
“This is often the case in the event of very intense rainy episodes, even if these episodes are rare”it is exceptional to have all the bodies of water closed, specifies the agglomeration Pays Basque.
The purple flag at least until Friday morning 10 a.m.
In question, the runoff caused by heavy rains on concrete soils, very dirty after two months of drought. And the overflow of some wastewater systems.
Given that it will still rain many times this Thursday afternoon, the services of the agglomeration do not intend to carry out new analyzes of the water before the next scheduled one, that is to say, Friday August 19 at 5h.
At the end of the day, the prefecture of Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the Basque Country agglomeration must meet to take stock of the drought, during a committee planned for a few weeks. A drought committee that could quickly address the precipitation of the last few hours.
The Pyrénées-Atlantiques department is on orange “rain-flood” vigilance until Thursday August 18, 9 p.m.