Ads carefully analyzed. Emmanuel Macron presents this Thursday in the Hautes Alpes a plan to improve water management, a resource threatened by global warming. While the country is going through a social and political crisis in terms of pensions, the President of the Republic will seek to demonstrate that he is staying the course.
Habitué d’ordinaire à parcourir l’Hexagone, il n’est quasiment pas sorti au contact des Français after the presentation in January of the réforme phare de son second quinquennat, qui prévoit le recul à 64 ans de l’âge légal de départ à retirement.
In one of his last outings, on February 25 at the Agricultural Fair, he called for a “sobriety plan” in the water, like the one he has launched for energy.
A plan that Elisabeth Borne was going to present
The winter in France was particularly dry with a record 32 days without rain, which did not allow the groundwater table to replenish, with 80% below normal on March 1.
This Thursday, against the backdrop of Lake Serre-Ponçon, the largest freshwater reservoir in Western Europe, the head of state must deploy some fifty measures to reduce waste and make better use of water.
This plan was initially to be presented by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, according to government sources. But the president, who cited ecology, school and health as his next priorities to try to get out of the pension crisis, finally stole the limelight with a trip announced at the last moment, this Wednesday.
“Preparing for Next Summer”
This trip also comes just five days after the demonstration against the “mega-basin” of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), peppered with images of extremely violent clashes between activists and the police.
With global warming and repeated droughts, “water has become a strategic resource for France,” says the Élysée. Climate experts forecast a 10 to 40% decline in water resources, hitherto abundant in France’s temperate climate, in the coming decades.
The plan will have as its main objective “preparing for next summer”, which could be “difficult if the weather situation does not improve”, says the presidency. He also points to “profound transformations to build adequate infrastructure” by 2030.
“All sectors – industry, agriculture, tourism and leisure, communities, individuals, etc. – will be mobilized, because in fact it is all the French who must commit themselves to take our water policy into a new era,” underlines the Élysée.
Wastewater reuse
One of the most scrutinized aspects will be related to agriculture, the main consumer of water for irrigation (more than 2,000 million m3), which is practiced only on 7% of cultivated areas but more frequently in summer, when the resource scarce.
Attempts to conserve winter water in artificial reservoirs target environmentalists and part of the agricultural world, who denounce a “hoarding” of a “common good” and a “bad adaptation.”
“As if I were going to fill their jacuzzi,” the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, who will accompany the president, joked on Monday, warning on the contrary against the “water footprint” of the food he eats that would have to be imported to compensate . a possible drop in domestic production.
In addition to increasing storage solutions, the government is also working on developing more drought-resistant crops. Another important route, both for agriculture and for sports fields or washing: the reuse of wastewater, which is currently practiced in less than 1% of the volumes in France compared to 8% in Italy, 14% in Spain and 85% in Israel.
The plan should also announce funding to better fight “wasting.” “Currently, around one in five liters of drinking water is filtered,” and even one in two liters in certain territories, which do not have the means to repair old infrastructure, according to the executive.
Source: BFM TV
