After a severe drought that parched most of France last summer, the country has now announced what it calls a “daily sobriety plan” to slash water consumption.
The recent measures were presented on Wednesday by Ecological Transition Minister, Christophe Béchu, who spoke of measuring water in “eco watts” and overhauling the country’s water treatment system, adding that the average consumption of 150 litres of water per person per day was not sustainable.
“There will be a before and after ‘summer of 2022’,” Béchu said, as he called on all sectors to make an effort to cut down on water use, including farmers.
Béchu explained that nature has left the country no choice but to act as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted a 10 to 40 per cent drop in river levels by 2050.
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“Almost all French departments were affected by restrictions, and 700 municipalities experienced difficulties in drinking water supply in 2022”, the minister said, adding that to avoid a lasting water shortage, the volume of water taken from subsoil needs to be reduced by a little over 10 per cent by 2027.
With very little wastewater recycled in France, Béchu said the anti-drought plan needed to include ramping up the reprocessing of wastewater.
“Only 77 of the 33,000 wastewater treatment plants in France are equipped with a complete recycling treatment system,” he said.
Story was adapted from RFI.
