The climate emergency unites them, they explain. Voies navigables de France and the Rhine-Meuse water agency sign a “Water and climate” partnership in favor of the environment. Their commitment has just been sealed in Thionville on the small Robert Schuman lock. Quite a symbol. It reopened in 2022 after forty years of closure. Its renovation allows small boats to pass without opening the large neighboring lock and saves 2 million m3 of water per year.
The charter signed between VNF and the Water Agency specifically targets this type of development. Their collaboration is not new. But it is reinforced. 20 million euros will be invested over the period 2023-2026. This envelope will finance work to save water, improve its quality and regenerate the natural environment.
One of the first avenues put forward is to restore the nature of the canals, the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, to allow the fauna and flora to redeploy there. Not all intervention points have yet been inventoried. The network concerned by this program extends over 1,600 km of rivers, gullies, reservoir ponds, throughout the northeast quarter.
“Every m3 of water must be saved”
“We must list the leak points, manage water tensions”, adds Yann Quiquandon, regional director of VNF Strasbourg, co-signatory of the charter with his counterpart Sophie-Charlotte Valentin, director of Grand Est. “The purpose of the works is to bring the water to where it is needed. The smallest m3 of water must be saved”, summarizes Marc Hoeltzel, general manager of the Rhine-Meuse water agency. The interest is environmental and economic.
This targeted regional cooperation is in line with a national charter signed in early July. It also responds to the Water Plan recently announced by the State, which aims to reduce water withdrawals by 10% by 2030.
#Thionville #VNF #Water #Agency #unite #face #climate #emergency
