After a very dry summer of 2022 and a winter that did not allow groundwater to be replenished, the outlook for the 2023 summer season is not very reassuring. We tell you more in the column “1 planet, solutions” produced by NOWU in partnership with France Info.
In recent weeks, the rain has returned to a large part of France, with the exception of the Mediterranean rim. According to Simon Mittelberger, climatologist at Météo France, “compared to the situation we had end of February when the soils were very dry and corresponded to a normal situation at the beginning of summer, we are sure a situation that has greatly improved ».
Groundwater still largely in deficit
But the lights are not all green for all that: if the soils have re-wet, “reserves remain relatively low” adds Simon Mittelberger, noting that the snowpack is very deficient and will bring much less water at the time of the spring melt than usual.
So there are still significant concerns for 2 main reasons. First, the water tables remain at 80% below normal with low to very low levels depending on the latest BRGM figures, the national geological service. And as a bonus, Météo France has not yet managed to come up with a scenario for the spring that would make it possible to determine whether it will rain enough in the months to come to recharge these deep underground reserves. If the summer of 2023 were hot and dry, France would therefore probably not have the reserves that had enabled it to cope with summer 2022.
If the winter rain deficit is not directly linked to climate change according to Simon Mittelberger, climate change does affect the water cycle and contributes in particular to making the spring and summer seasons hotter and drier, and therefore episodes of more intense drought.
Solutions to the drought?
As with all problems caused by climate change, putting in place policies that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions is essential.
More adapt to more intense droughts is also, and for this there are many avenues: to change the types of culture according to the regions and seasons (for example corn consumes a lot of water in France during the summer, when it can be particularly lacking) , but also setting up new, more economical irrigation models, or even working on infrastructure. For example, in Guadeloupe where restrictions have just been put in place, approximately 60% of the water is lost before reaching the tap due to an old and defective network.
To act on its scale, only using the washing machine when it is really full or installing flow limiters on the taps can help!
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