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Since January, the alerts have been repeated and insistent.
On the part of local elected officials, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, and even Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and President Emmanuel Macron, who are also concerned, during the Salon de l Agriculture, by the drought situation in certain departments.
In the Alpes-Maritimes, the alert will be notified by the prefecture.
The entire department will go into a state of drought alert, i.e. level two after the state of vigilance.
The neighboring territory of the Var is already subject to a heightened alert.
The Maralpine prefect discussed the subject with Minister Christophe Béchu and the first drought committee was held on Tuesday with representatives of communities, professionals and associations.
This state of alert, which will be triggered at the end of the week or next Monday, echoes the previous situations of lack of water in the department.
In 2022, it had already experienced a rainfall deficit of 43%.
A stage of drought vigilance thus ran from March 9 until December 15.
The situation is almost identical this year.
The observation of the lack of water is similar, up to 50%.
This is the third year in a row that this issue has arisen in the Alpes-Maritimes.
“The water resource is worrying”
It rained, but not enough.
After almost 50 days without any tears falling from the clouds, two rainy days in February were not enough to restore the situation (2 to 3 millimeters).
March does not look any more humid and a strong wind forecast for the next few days is likely to dry out the land a little more.
From December to today, the hydrometric deficit has climbed to 87%.
Read alsoDrought: “The situation is worse than last year on the same date”, warns Christophe Béchu
The restrictions will be specified in the coming days.
But already, a drop in water use of up to 20% will be required of farmers and industry.
For individuals, it will be prohibited to water their lawn between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
It is also forbidden to fill in to upgrade your pool.
Same for cleaning your car: it will no longer be possible to go to dedicated centers or to do it at home with your garden hose.
Ports will also be affected and boats cannot be rinsed.
How can we be sure that individuals will respect these restrictions?
“We encourage town halls to use their municipal police
,” explained Pascal Jobert, departmental director of territories and the sea (DDTM).
