Restrictions on water use have already been introduced in almost all 96 departments on the mainland. And the meteorologists predict that the heat wave will not slow down in the coming weeks.
“This drought is the worst we have ever seen in this country,” Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne’s office said in a statement, adding that “the situation may persist for the next two weeks or become even worse.”
“Disaster”
The drought means a “disaster” for the country’s farmers as well as for ecosystems and biodiversity, the statement continues.
The high temperatures have increased evaporation from lakes and waterways whose levels have dropped just as the need for irrigation is great before the autumn harvest times.
In addition, the energy company EDF has been forced to reduce activity at several nuclear power plants. This when the temperatures in adjacent rivers have become too high. In such a situation, releasing back normal amounts of the water that was used to cool the reactors would mean further increases in temperature that are deemed to be harmful to animal and plant life.
Golf courses excluded
“Faced with this historic situation, the Prime Minister has decided to activate a multi-ministerial crisis group and urges everyone to conserve water,” Borne’s office states.
However, the statement does not comment on the growing criticism of the exemptions that apply to golf courses, where irrigation is allowed to continue even in departments under emergency alert.
The drought in southern Europe has raised concerns that ruined crops will lead to further increases in food prices, which have been pushed up by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, among other things.