France to introduce water restrictions | BNR news radio

The French government plans to introduce water restrictions. This reports Bloomberg. France is experiencing one of the driest winters ever and it threatens to jeopardize water supplies for next summer, Ecology Minister Christophe Bechu says in Le Journal du Dimanche.

Bechu will speak tomorrow to the representatives of the French regions to ask them “to anticipate” and if they want to “take appropriate measures which now make it possible to save water”, he specifies in the newspaper. He is thinking, among other things, of local water restrictions for households and farmers if necessary.

Plenty

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 an agricultural fair in Paris. “We have to measure a form of austerity so as not to abuse it.”

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Macron also mentioned that all citizens and businesses should be aware of the problem, as 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 waste water filtering. Something that Spain and Italy are also suffering from.

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After a long dry spell last summer, France entered winter with low water levels. Because it also rained less, this situation only got worse. In February, it had not been so dry in France since 1959, continues Bechu. “The situation is worse than this time last year, and we are already two months behind in replenishing our groundwater reserves.”