‘A big joke’: Citizens blame corn, data centres and leaky pipes as water restrictions grip France

Record heat and climate change are creating more frequent and severe droughts. France is bracing for its third heatwave of the year this week, after record June temperatures led to more than 2,000 excess deaths across the country. Sixteen departments have been placed under orange heatwave warnings on Monday (6 July) with highs of 40°C expected in parts of the southwest. Drought conditions are worsening, with the vast majority of departments under some form of alert. Water reserves have also been pushed to their limits, decimated by a combination of heat and low rainfall. As of 1 July, almost a dozen departments had at least one commune under the highest ‘crisis’ level for tap water, with restrictions on watering plants, washing cars and filling private swimming pools. ‘A big joke’ Citizens have taken to social media to express their dismay with the situation, with many complaining of the impact of water-hungry data centres: “Cut down the hyper-greedy data centres before telling us to restrain ourselves for watering our vegetable garden, flowers, etc,” Galinette Cendrée comments on a Facebook post by weather forecaster La Chaîne Météo. Others are singling out irrigation-intensive corn crops and leaky infrastructure as contributors to the looming crisis. “It’s still the average peasant who will have to stop watering his two geraniums, while the underground water supply network dating back to the 60s is leaking everywhere… Farmers will still have exemptions to pump/irrigate even if they have crops unsuited to the climate. A big joke,” Facebook user Fred Lordhebus comments below a post on water restrictions by Météo Basse-Normandie. Another commenter urges compliance with restrictions, saying: “It would be time for users to stop watering flowers and lawns. A ‘drop of water’ but if everyone did it, it would be a considerable gain.” Parched soils are a hazard zone for wildfires According to Météo-France, at the end of June soils were approaching their driest levels ever recorded in Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Limousin and Midi-Pyrénées. Parched vegetation is already becoming fuel for wildfires, with 10,000 people forced to evacuate in southwestern France, where a blaze fanned by strong winds has scorched 4,600 hectares. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said last week that nearly 7,000 fires have broken out since the start of the summer season, with some 8,700 hectares already burned. This summer’s scorching temperatures would have been “virtually impossible” 50 years ago, according to a rapid-response attribution study by World Weather Attribution released in June. Researchers found that a similar heatwave occurring in the climate of 1976 would have been around 3.5°C cooler, illustrating how sharply extreme heat has intensified in just a few decades. France’s steadily declining water reserves France’s water crisis is not an isolated event: the country’s renewable water resources have been steadily declining, dropping by 14 per cent between the periods 1990-2001 and 2002-2018. Drier, warmer winters with earlier snowmelt combined with increasing evaporation from escalating summer heat are driving this pattern – worsened by high water demand from agriculture, alongside domestic consumption and cooling requirements for France's nuclear power plants. During June's heatwave, nuclear reactors on the Seine and Rhone rivers were forced to shut down due to rising water temperatures. It came as a stark reminder that drought is not only an environmental issue: “It affects food systems, energy production, economies, ecosystems and human wellbeing,” says Dr Micha Werner, a professor of drought resilience in the Water Resources and Ecosystems Department at IHE Delft. How widespread are France’s water restrictions? Drought alerts in France are based on an escalating scale – vigilance, alert, heightened alert and crisis – with the highest tier banning almost all non-essential water use. Restrictions are set commune by commune, so neighbouring towns in the same department can face different rules. According to the government’s VigiEau platform, as of 1 July, 84 of France’s 96 mainland departments had at least one commune under some form of tap-water restriction, with only 12 departments – including Charente-Maritime, the Somme and Haute-Corse – escaping so far. When expanding to agricultural water restrictions, 92 of the 96 departments are affected. A set of emergency measures rolled out by France’s agriculture ministry on 3 July aimed to help farmers cope with more frequent extreme weather linked to climate change. It includes faster crop insurance payments, closer monitoring of damage to crops and livestock, and earlier planning for possible water restrictions. Maize is among France's most water-intensive summer crops and often requires irrigation during hot, dry periods, particularly during flowering. This year's prolonged heat and lack of rainfall have taken a growing toll as the crop enters this critical stage of development. France's maize harvest is now expected to be the worst in decades, with around a third of the crop wiped out by high temperatures, according to the agriculture ministry. The extreme summer heat comes on the tail of France’s warmest spring since records began in 1900. Temperatures were 1.7°C above the seasonal norm and rainfall was around 30 per cent below average, according to Météo-France. As a result, the groundwater monitoring institution, Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM), estimates that 77 per cent of France’s groundwater levels are now declining. With little rain forecast for the first half of July, the situation is expected to worsen – but officials emphasise that restrictions are so far preventative rather than indicative of a crisis. Following a government committee set up earlier this month to plan for water shortages, Ecological Transition Minister Delegate Mathieu Lefèvre said that no national drinking water supply disruptions had yet been reported, though some networks were “beginning to come under strain”, France Info reports.