drought still threatens France, despite spring rains

The rain came too late. Despite the precipitation of recent weeks in several regions, a large majority of French groundwater remains at worrying levels, announced Wednesday, May 17 the Geological and Mining Research Bureau (BRGM). “In March and April 2023, the cumulative rainfall was excessive over a large part of the territory” what had “beneficial impact” on the aquifers of the northern two-thirds of the territory, but “the situation remains unsatisfactory over a large part of the country”underlines the public body.

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As of May 1, 68% of the water tables are still at “moderately low to very low levels”, of which 20% at very low levels. Only 17% of underground water reserves have levels above normal. A month ago, 75% of the water tables were at moderately low or very low levels. The situation is certainly a little better, but still very far from warding off the specter of a new drought in the summer, which could even be worse than that of last year, yet already exceptional.

For the Ministry of Ecological Transition, 26 departments are in “very likely risk of drought by the end of the summer”. Most are located around the Mediterranean, the Rhone corridor and in the Paris basin. The government’s priority remains to secure access to drinking water. According to Minister Christophe Béchu, “2,000 municipalities” are “fragile” from this point of view and “about 400 work operations” have been undertaken to mitigate this risk.