The Minister also intends to communicate in mid-April with the populations to encourage them to save water and remind them of “good gestures”.
Drôme and Ardèche will partially go on drought alert, joining 4 other departments that have already taken extraordinarily early water restriction measures, announced Monday, March 6, the Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu. These two departments of the Rhone basin, where the exceptional deficit of winter rains after a scorching summer is particularly marked, join the Pyrénées-Orientales, almost entirely affected by restrictions, as well as, partially, Ain, Bouches-du-Rhône and the Var.
>> MAP. Drought: which five departments are already affected by water restrictions?
These water restrictions come in the aftermath of a winter that did not fill the water tables, when the season is normally crucial for recharging freshwater reserves. Nearly 80% of underground water tables in mainland France were at levels below normal in February, according to data from the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) revealed by the minister.
Five other departments on the alert
Five other departments passed Monday or will soon pass vigilance, a stage prior to water restrictions: Yvelines, Corrèze, Vaucluse, Sarthe and Alpes-Maritimes, which join Savoie. “At the end of this week, we should be at 12 instead of 5 departments concerned by vigilance or alert measures, but the situation can obviously continue to change”said Christophe Béchu, who took stock of the situation after a meeting with all the prefectures of France.
The Minister, who says “sound the tocsin” faced with the serious risk of water shortages in the summer, on February 27 called on the prefects to take water-saving measures “right now”. The Minister and the Secretary of State for Ecology, Bérangère Couillard, also urged the population to also save water. “There will be a communication on this subject from mid-April to remind the general public of the right gestures”, he said, recalling that a French person consumed an average of 149 liters of water per day. Another stage point is scheduled for March 15, after rains forecast by Météo-France.