An “Already Historic Drought” as the Heatwave Returns

A new heatwave is coming and with it a worsening of the drought which will result in costs higher than those of 2022, warns the government.

Météo-france is forecasting a new heatwave in the South-West from this Tuesday. On Wednesday, temperatures continue to rise with a peak of intense heat over a large western half. We forecast 38°C in Paris and Tours, 36°C in Lyon and Grenoble, and peaks of 40°C in the South-West, a region plagued by fires in Gironde and Landes, specifies the establishment audience.

This new heat episode “will further accentuate” an “already historic drought”, deplored for her part the Minister of Ecological Transition, Monique Barbut, by bringing together the Hydrological Anticipation and Monitoring Committee.

“While I am aware of the difficulties farmers face, it is not acceptable that the rules are broken.”

99 departments affected by surveillance

“This situation has a real economic impact. For the drought of 2022, this cost was estimated at 5.6 billion euros, including 3.5 billion for cracks in individual houses alone linked to the shrinkage-swelling of clay, 1.1 billion losses in agricultural production and hydroelectric production down 20%”, she recalled. “This year, these figures will be higher than they were in 2022”, she added, opening a Hydrological Anticipation and Monitoring Committee at the ministry. To which must be added the costs linked to the ongoing forest fires.

France currently has 99 departments affected by surveillance which may be subject to restrictions on the use of water, including 62 considered to be in “crisis”.

“Respecting restrictive measures is not a choice, it is a duty. If I am aware of the difficulties that farmers face, it is not acceptable that the rules are broken”, insisted the minister. Last week, the Rural Coordination (CR), the second agricultural union, called on farmers not to respect the irrigation bans and restrictions taken in the face of drought.

“The drinking water supply is under tension in several territories, more precisely in 47 French departments”, added Monique Barbut, specifying that “tap water cuts” were already affecting “more than 30,000 people on 80 municipalities”. These municipalities are therefore supplied with drinking water “by tanker trucks or using water bottles”, said the minister. The phenomenon currently mainly affects “more rural and more isolated sectors”, said Régis Taisne of the FNCCR, a federation of communities.

Heatwave: hospitals will “still suffer”

With the arrival of the new heat wave on Tuesday, “hospitals will still suffer, inevitably, they will once again adapt, whether in Bordeaux” or “everywhere in the territory”, declared Arnaud Robinet, at the head of the organization which brings together French public hospitals, on TF1 on Monday. “It is clear that our establishments are not adapted to global warming”, he continued, recalling having “sounded the alarm several years ago by asking for a green fund for hospitals, like of what was done for the municipalities.

If “certain operating rooms and maternity wards” are air-conditioned, adapting the establishments “represents approximately two billion euros per year” of investments, said the president of the French Hospital Federation (FHF). Asked about the arrival of the 30,000 air conditioners promised by the government by “the beginning of August”, Arnaud Robinet mentioned “some difficulties” on the ground: certain devices “that we cannot connect, others manufactured at the “foreigner, which do not correspond to standards”, “absurdity” when departmental fire services (SDIS) oppose their installation “for safety reasons”. “Once again, we are reacting to the emergency, we have no medium and long term strategy”, he lamented.

Ecosystems affected in the Loire River

The Loire, usually low in summer, faces an exceptionally early drought which affects ecosystems. At the beginning of July, in the middle of a heatwave, the Loire locally reached nearly 30°C, levels close to lethal thresholds for certain species. “Fish cannot regulate their temperature, their body is at water temperature”, says Michael Renard, head of development for the Loiret Fishing Federation. Pike or barbel cannot survive water temperatures at 31 or 32°C. Especially since with the heat filamentous algae proliferate massively in the river, also consuming oxygen and creating an additional threat to fish. The river was placed last Wednesday in a state of ’”alert”,second vigilance threshold on a scale of four with first restrictions on water use.