Emmanuel Macron presents, Thursday in the Hautes-Alpes, a long-awaited plan intended to improve the management of water, a resource threatened by global warming, also intending to show that he is staying the course in the midst of a pension crisis. The president, who usually likes to travel around France, has hardly gone out in contact with the French since the presentation, in January, of the flagship reform of his second five-year term, which provides for the decline to 64 years of the age statutory retirement.
During one of his last outings in contact with the French, on February 25, at the Agricultural Show, he had called for a “sobriety plan” on the water, like the one put in place for the ‘energy. The winter in France was particularly dry with a record 32 days without rain, which did not allow the water tables to be replenished, for 80% below normal on March 1.
Thursday, against the backdrop of Lake Serre-Ponçon, the largest freshwater reservoir in Western Europe, the Head of State must roll out around 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 has made ecology, school and health his next priorities in an attempt to get out of the pension crisis, finally stole the show with a trip announced at the last moment on Wednesday.
This trip also comes just five days after the demonstration against the mega-basin of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), punctuated by images of clashes of extreme violence between activists and the police. With global warming and repeated droughts, “water has become a strategic resource for France”, notes the Élysée.
Climate experts anticipate a 10 to 40% decrease in water resources, hitherto abundant in the temperate climate of France, in the coming decades. The plan will primarily focus on “preparing for next summer”, which could be “difficult if the weather situation does not improve”, notes the presidency. It also aims for “in-depth transformations to build suitable infrastructure” by 2030. “All sectors – industry, agriculture, tourism and leisure, communities, individuals, etc. – will be mobilized, because it is indeed all the French people who must be engaged to bring our water policy into a new era”, underlines the Elysée.
One of the most scrutinized aspects will be that concerning agriculture, the main consumer of water via irrigation (more than 2 billion cubic meters), admittedly practiced only on 7% of cultivated areas but most often in summer, when the resource is scarce. Attempts to conserve winter water in artificial reservoirs are turning environmentalists and part of the agricultural world against them, denouncing a “grabbing” of a “common good” and a “maladaptation”.
“As if it were to fill their jacuzzi”, quipped on Monday the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, who will accompany the president, warning on the contrary against the water footprint of the food that would have to be imported. to compensate for a possible drop in national production. In addition to increased storage solutions, the government is also working on the development of more drought-resistant crops.
Another major avenue, for agriculture as well as for sports grounds or flushing: the reuse of wastewater, currently practiced for less than 1% of volumes in France, compared to 8% in Italy, 14% in Spain and 85% in Israel. The plan should also announce funding to better fight “against waste”. “Currently, about 1 in 5 liters of drinking water leaks”, and even 1 in 2 liters in certain territories which do not have the means to repair ancient infrastructures, according to the executive.