“It has not rained since November 1” in Saint-Zacharie (Var), said mayor Jean-Jacques Coulomb Thursday on franceinfo, while his town was placed on the highest alert level linked to drought.
“We can only use the water for drinking and washing”, laments Thursday April 13 on franceinfo Jean-Jacques Coulomb, mayor of Saint-Zacharie (Var), whose town was placed at crisis level on March 24 by the prefecture, the highest level of alert linked to drought. The Geological and Mining Research Bureau (BRGM) made an inventory of the situation in France on Thursday: the rains of March improved the situation but 75% of the water tables are at a level considered below normal, against 60% it a year ago. AT some places the levels are historically low.
>> INFOGRAPHICS. Faced with the very worrying level of groundwater, the risk of drought increases further for this summer
franceinfo: Your municipality was placed on drought alert by the prefecture on March 24, so you are already faced with this situation?
Jean-Jacques Coulomb : We are no longer even on drought alert but in drought crisis for the past fortnight. This is the most important prefectural decree concerning drought. We can only use water for drinking and washing. It hasn’t rained since November 1st. We have no more water. It is not raining anymore.
How do the inhabitants deal with this situation?
We try to make them aware. We have our drinking water consumption going down. They are receptive to this problem. It’s very complicated. I have 700 swimming pools in my town, so I would need 700 municipal police to check because there, with this crisis drought order, we can’t even fill them. To control it is really complicated.
“There is still an awareness on the part of my constituents but as long as we have tap water with a sufficient flow, they tell themselves that it will pass and that it will rain.”
Jean-Jacques Coulomb, mayor of Saint-Zacharie (Var)on franceinfo
When we are going to have restrictions, and I don’t want them, in terms of water flow rates and especially when we pay more for water, what is going to happen is undeniable, then maybe everyone world will be more sensitive.
>> Government report calls for ‘radical change’ to avoid future disruptions in drinking water supply
How do you envision the sequel?
The prefectural decree of March 24 on drought is the first time we have heard it. I am a native of the commune and neither my parents nor my grandparents experienced this situation so early. We had the prefectural decrees which fell at the beginning of June. We spent the summer with our water treatment plant on the Canal de Provence and we had the rains of August which filled the water table and we got by just like that. This is where it becomes very worrying.
