The Geological and Mining Research Bureau (BRGM) said on Friday “ quite pessimistic on water availability in 2023 after last year’s exceptional drought.
If rain is so rare in 2023, “ we will arrive at a much worse situation than the one we experienced at the end of summer 2022 “, when almost all metropolitan departments were experiencing water restrictions, warned Friday January 13 the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM). This warning stems from an observation: Groundwater levels in December are unsatisfactory “.
For the BRGM, this is explained by the fact that “ the rains infiltrated during the autumn are very insufficient to compensate for the deficits accumulated during the year 2022 and to improve the state of the groundwater in the long term “. The autumn rainfall has in fact benefited first and foremost the soils on the surface and on the vegetation, before recharging the aquifers at depth.
The decisive winter precipitation
As a result, more than three-quarters of these underground reserves remain below monthly normals, with many sectors posting “ low to very low levels », especially in the south-east of France. Nationally, these levels are ” significantly lower than December 2022 “.
Precipitation from January to March will therefore be decisive. But the BRGM says to itself “ quite pessimistic », in the face of insufficient rains and the beginning of groundwater recharge which started more than a month late. A situation that is all the more worrying in that in France, groundwater provides about two thirds of drinking water and one third of agricultural irrigation.
(With AFP)