France is suffering from drought this summer, but the summers are increasingly warm and dry. This causes a lot of headaches for the agricultural sector. French Minister Nicolas Hulot (Ecological Affairs) and Minister of Agriculture Stéphane Travert presented their plans on August 9 to solve the stress surrounding water shortages: winter storage.
The drought in France has reached 'alarming' levels. With 82 departments where water use restrictions have been introduced, it is an extremely dry summer. It is the umpteenth year in a row that farmers have to use the winter ration in July to feed the cows, that grain plots ripen early and that potato plots need to be fully irrigated. To prevent these problems in the future, the two ministries rolled out their plans for sustainable water management.
Build reserves
The plans are twofold. On the one hand, the ministers want to combat shortages through the reuse of treated wastewater, but the most important announcement is the use of winter storage. The rain can be collected in these storages, so that no restrictions need to be imposed in a dry summer.
Agricultural sector positive
The first reactions from French agriculture are positive. They see building up reserves for scarce times as a good initiative to tackle current problems. Critical voices are being heard from environmental organizations. They do not see building dams as a sustainable solution, but are afraid that nature will be damaged in this way.
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