• On November 29, the administrative court of Montpellier decided to revise downwards the possibility of taking water from the Têt, due to the worrying state of the hydraulic reserves.

  • These restrictions raise serious concerns, especially for farmers who fear that they will no longer be able to water their farms sufficiently.

  • Between 500 and 1,000 people expressed their anger in Perpignan, mostly farmers.

Several hundred people, including a majority of farmers, demonstrated Tuesday in Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) against potential restrictions on their access to water.

The demonstrators contest a decision of the administrative court of Montpellier of November 29 which lowers the possibility of taking water from the Têt river, the longest in the Pyrénées-Orientales, in particular for the irrigation of crops.

Coming with about fifty tractors, the demonstrators (between 500 and a thousand) marched behind a banner bearing the slogan “Water relief: rurality sacrificed”, to the prefecture where a delegation was received.

“We are currently in the unknown and it is precisely visibility that we are asking for and that the State appeal this court decision”, explained Pierre Hylari, president of the Young farmers of the department.

Consequences for all stakeholders in the territory

The administrative court, seized by the association France Nature Environnement, decided to raise the threshold above which water withdrawals are possible in the Têt.

While they were previously possible in the summer when the river reached a flow of 600 liters per second, the threshold rose to 1,500 l / s in order to preserve biodiversity in the river, decided the court.

"This increase in reserved flow has direct consequences on the entire economy since it goes from the mountains to the coast", denounces Pierre Hylari.

"This concerns in particular 6,000 hectares of agricultural area and what is still strong, half of the farmers of the department, that is to say 1,500 people who mainly do arboriculture and market gardening", he detailed.

"Exceptional water stress"

Representatives of the department's ski resorts were also present because they use water from the Bouillouses dam at the source of the Têt to supply their snow cannons, and fear that they will no longer be able to do so.



The Pyrénées-Orientales have been affected for several months by an exceptional drought.

In a press release updated on Tuesday, the prefecture thus recalls that it is not planned to put an end to the measures restricting the use of water "in view of the extremely worrying situation of the state of resources".

“To the winter drought”, specifies the prefecture, “are added the effects of the exceptional water tension of the summer of 2022”.

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  • Perpignan

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