Bechu will speak to representatives of the French regions tomorrow to ask them to “anticipate” and if they want to “take adequate measures that now save water,” he told the newspaper. He is thinking about, among other things, local water restrictions for households and farmers where necessary.
Abundance
The plan comes days after French President Emmanuel Macron said the glut in water use had come to an end. “The country must do with water what we have done with energy,” he said yesterday at a farmers’ fair in Paris. “We need to measure a form of austerity so we don’t abuse it.”
Macron also recalled that all citizens and businesses should pay attention to the problem, because water is becoming “increasingly scarce” in France.
Investments
To improve the existing water network, the French government wants to invest more money in improving leak detection and filtering of used water. Something that Spain and Italy also suffer from.
After a long dry spell last summer, France has entered winter with low water levels. Since it also rained less, the situation only got worse. In February, France hadn’t been this dry since 1959, Bechu continued. “The situation is worse than this time last year, and we are already two months behind in replenishing our groundwater reserves.”