The municipality of Grenoble has announced that it is activating, for the second consecutive year, its freshness plan to fight against heat waves. This plan provides in particular for the renovation of the city’s fountains but also the installation of foggers in certain districts.
For the second consecutive year, the city of Grenoble is activating its freshness plan for the summer of 2022. This plan aims to combat the episodes of high heat that the city regularly experiences. “With summers intensifying, it is necessary to adapt the city to longer and longer heat waves“, explained during a press briefing Gilles Namur, assistant to Nature in the city.
The elected official recalled in particular that temperature records had been recorded in May 2022 in the capital of the Alps, where the thermometer rose to 31.4° C according to Météo France.
To fight against heat islands, the ecological municipality is working to rehabilitate certain fountains that have been shut down due to dilapidation or because of their status as works of art, or which functioned “with lost water”. Currently, less than 20 fountains operate out of about 40 existing ones. A market is underway to reopen some with a “new more eco-responsible system“, indicated the chosen one.
The city also has 168 standpipes in working order, supplied by five collection sites. It intends to repair 15 during the summer and install four in the coming months. New prototypes, more accessible to different users, are in progress.
Foggers will also be deployed in several neighborhoods. These devices, “very regulated“, work via microdroplets and allow “very low water consumption“, noted for his part Manon Locatellihead of the “water and freshness” division at the town hall of Grenoble. Street furniture will also be placed on certain portions of the banks of the Isère river to “to bring people to the water“.
“As for the summer season for municipal swimming pools, it will run from June 25 to August 28”indicated Gilles Namur, admitting that this period is relatively short compared to the length of the summer. The municipality would like to propose “more and better” in this matter, but faces “difficulties recruiting lifeguards” and to “operation and maintenance issues”.
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