The Ile-de-France prefecture places Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne on “drought” vigilance, all the departments of metropolitan France now being affected by the climatic phenomenon and calls for water conservation, she said in a statement.
The flow of the Seine fell on July 25 below the threshold of 81 m3/s at the Paris-Austerlitz station, triggering this transition to drought vigilance, specifies the prefecture, which adds that the interdepartmental decree will be taken “very quickly”. The “vigilance” level, known as “orange”, is the first of the four levels of dryness.
Limit your water consumption
Individuals, local authorities and companies are encouraged, but not obliged, by the prefecture to ration their consumption, avoiding the watering of green spaces or roads, washing their vehicles or limiting their domestic consumption.
The entire French territory is now affected by this episode of exceptional drought. A majority of departments are in a so-called “crisis” (red), heightened alert (orange) or alert (yellow) level.
Third heat wave of the summer
This drought is getting worse as France experiences its third heat wave in barely two months, making the consequences of global warming even more noticeable.
“A heat wave episode is confirmed for the middle of the week, centered on Wednesday and Thursday with maximum temperatures between 34 to 38 ° C and locally 40 ° C”, said Monday evening Météo-France.
As a result, four departments in the south-east (Ardèche, Drôme, Gard and Vaucluse) and the Pyrénées-Orientales remain on orange alert. Fifty other departments, south of a line from Charente-Maritime to Alsace, are on yellow alert.
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“On Wednesday, a heat peak is expected with maximum temperatures most often reaching 34 to 38 ° C, and locally 39 to 40 ° C over the Toulouse noon”, precise Meteo-Francebefore the hot axis shifts to the northeast on Thursday.
In this context, already conducive to unprecedented forest fires, a fire on Monday covered 450 hectares of maquis in the town of Santo-Pietro di Tenda in Haute-Corse, said a spokesperson for the firefighters.
Another illustration of the negative consequences, the Ardèche announced on Monday the emergency installation of six air conditioners in a children’s home in Privas, where “reigns for weeks” a “stifling heat”, according to a press release from the community.
A shorter and less intense wave
This new heat wave promises to be shorter and less intense, specifies Météo-France, than that of mid-July, during which absolute records were beaten in 64 municipalities, flirting or even exceeding 40°C in several localities.
But this rapid return of high heat has hit a major part of the country already affected by an exceptional drought and with immediate consequences, in particular on agriculture, river transport and water recreation.
Only 9.7 millimeters of aggregate precipitation was recorded in mainland France last month, a deficit of about 84% compared to normal, almost as little as the 7.8 mm of March 1961, the record low since the first national surveys in August 1958.
“This strong deficit of precipitation, which follows a very dry spring and combined with high temperatures, contributes to aggravate the drying of the soil”, warns Meteo-France.
If the whole of France is now under “drought” vigilance with water restrictions at different levels, 57 prefectures have designated territories in a state of crisis, synonymous with stopping non-priority withdrawals “including withdrawals from agricultural purposes”.
“Only withdrawals to ensure the exercise of priority uses are authorized (health, civil security, drinking water, sanitation)”, explains the government’s drought information site, Propluvia.
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