Not A Drop To Drink: France Battles Severe Drought

Just another day in the climate apocalypse as the French (literally) pray for rain.

Le Monde @lemondefr

La France sous la menace d’une nouvelle sécheresse

lemonde.frLa France sous la menace d’une sécheresse encore plus importante qu’en 2022Le niveau de 80 % des nappes souterraines est inférieur à la normale, alerte le Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières dans son bulletin rendu public lundi. Les difficultés pourraient se faire jour dès le printemps.

Following a month with no significant rainfall, French officials are preparing to implement possible water usage limitations in response to the rare winter drought. The lack of rainfall already has officials across the country scrambling to put in place emergency plans to avoid devastation to crops, people, and animals this coming summer.

The 32 straight days without rain in the winter was the longest streak since 1959, according to Le Monde. The prime minister is set to announce a water plan to respond to the drought in the coming days.

Last month, the government convened an unusual meeting of its hydrological anticipation and monitoring committee, led by Christophe Béchu, Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, and Bérangère Couillard, Secretary of State for Ecology.

The committee was tasked with monitoring the situation and developing proposals should France face a lack of water in the coming weeks, according to Le Figaro.

“Faced with this situation, every day counts,” said Béchu in a press release. He noted that France is currently about 2 months behind in terms of the level of its water tables. Météo-France, the nation’s weather forecasting agency, has also reported that February 2023 is on track to be one of the driest months of February since 1959.

How bad are things getting? Four out of five water tables are now exceptionally low, according to France’s Bureau of Geological and Mining Research.

How bad are things getting? Le Monde reports that for the past eight months, the village of Coucouron has been supplied with water by a tanker because the spring that normally supplies its water has all but vanished. The water truck regularly dumps 12,000 liters of water provided by other towns into the dried-up reservoir of the village.