"It's not really the idyllic image of a river," laments Julien Naudeau facing the bed of the Seudre, which has completely dried up.
Technician with the Charente-Maritime Federation for fishing and the protection of aquatic environments, he surveys every two weeks with his counterparts and volunteers 1564 km of waterways.
Objective: map almost in real time the state of the rivers – always the same – and build a history to deepen knowledge.
Results made public to alert public opinion
This summer mission, called "linear flow monitoring", has been carried out since the early 2000s. The Charentaise Maritime Federation originally scanned 750 km of waterways before expanding its field of action and intensify its surveys.
Initially intended for the State, the results of this operation are now made public to better alert public opinion.
The Fishermen's Federation relies on the same criteria as the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), which only follows fixed points.
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The data collected at the beginning of August turned out to be particularly catastrophic.
Out of 1564 km observed, 625 km are victims of dry lands, 124 others are out of flow – the water stagnates and no longer circulates.
This “linear in difficulty” would have increased by 27% since July 15, date of the previous statements.
According to the fishermen, less than a third of the rivers observed would still benefit from an “acceptable visible flow”.
Three basins show dry conditions on more than 50% of the watercourses observed (on the Boutonne, the Seudre and the Curé where farmers have admitted to having irrigated “illegally” since last spring).
These figures struggle to translate the reality: streams and rivers only remain arid furrows, without any trace of life.
“The environment is so degraded that some species can no longer even complete a single life cycle”
Marie Rouet, director of the Charente-Maritime Fishermen's Federation
“The environment is so degraded that some species cannot even complete a single life cycle.
We are witnessing complete degradation of the stands, ”warns Marie Rouet, director of the Federation of Fishermen.
The drought that is raging everywhere in France would only be an “aggravating factor”, she specifies, pointing in particular to the consequences of agricultural consolidation, the drainage of fields or the reconfiguration of waterways.
“All these factors associated with agricultural irrigation lead to dysfunction,” assures Marie Rouet.
Faced with ever-increasing droughts, the Federation of Charente-Maritime is considering extending this monitoring of rivers beyond the month of September.
Because the end of summer does not solve the problem: "The resumption of flow is increasingly late, it is sometimes necessary to wait until December to see water flow again in certain rivers", note Marie Rouet and Julien Naudeau.
