- The Bas-Rhin prefecture decided to place the department on drought alert on Thursday, like the Moselle and the Doubs, for example.
- What does this mean for farmers? Are their cultures in danger? The situation is not as dire as the warning might suggest. Farmers have already experienced this situation and are adapting.
- Above all, not all are affected. It is mainly those who resort to withdrawals from rivers who are affected by these new restrictions.
Forbidden to use water to fill your swimming pool, wash your car except in professional stations or even water your garden between 10 and 6 pm ... Since Thursday, the Bas-Rhin prefecture has decided to place the department on the threshold of 'alert. In question ? "The low rainfall since March" which resulted in "drought soils".
The restrictions are even more specific for farmers. Those who irrigate via streams no longer have to pump at the same time; those who use groundwater are obliged to reduce their abstraction by "30% over a strip of 200 meters along the priority watercourses of the development plan and water management of the Ill-Nappe-Rhin basin", writes Prefecture. "Schematically, it's along the Ill [a river]", summarizes Gérard Lorber.
The president of the Bas-Rhin irrigators' union immediately wants to play down the situation. “I will only be worried if this lasts. The year is no drier than in 2019, the month of June was rather watered and saved our wheat crops. The level of the water table is not that much impacted ”, assures the one who is a producer of milk and cereals in Scherwiller.
"Not in a disaster scenario"
This speech, he is not the only one to hold it. The irrigation advisor at the department's chamber of agriculture also puts the new restrictions into perspective. "We are not in a disaster scenario where there is not a drop left anywhere", summarizes Patrice Denis. “There are rivers that are doing well, like the Moder or the Sauer, and others that worry us, like the Bruche. "
In Stutzheim-Offenheim, north-west of Strasbourg, François Schotter is in the second case. La Souffel is at "very low levels currently". Right when the one who produces vegetables in particular would need to water… How is he doing then? First, by organizing with fellow neighbors in order to pump at different times from theirs. “We talk among ourselves and we organize ourselves, the alert has not changed anything,” he explains. "In any case, we never reached our authorized flow".
This is why the farmer also uses water… from the network. “It might not be good communication to say it but it is. About 75% of my needs are switched to the drinking network today, ”he explains, before anticipating any criticism. “It's no longer shocking than putting it in a swimming pool! We have no choice since we are not on a tablecloth. And I can assure you that we are working hard to enhance this water. The goal is not performance, it is quality. For a product to taste, it must be watered at a time. "
"The ideal would be for it to rain"
In his farm, drip irrigation systems were set up "on 16 hectares, which represents 85 kilometers of pipes". "We do not irrigate excessively," insists the man who also grows flowers, tobacco and saffron. Or crops with high added value. Almost a niche in the Bas-Rhin, where corn is king.
"There are a hundred operators who take from the rivers in the department, that represents about 3% of the total water withdrawn", continues Patrice Denis. The remaining 97% comes from groundwater, not so much affected by drought so far. "The situation should not last until mid or late August," nevertheless notes the representative of the chamber of agriculture. “The ideal would be for it to rain,” concludes Gérard Lorber.
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