• Faced with a very dry month of July, farmers lack water to irrigate their soils and suffer great losses.

  • Drought fragments environments and weakens species that are deprived of drinking water.

  • Conserving wetlands and drinking water is now a major challenge in the face of shortages.

It is now all of France which has been affected by drought since the passage under "vigilance" of Paris and its small crown on Monday evening.

Something to worry farmers and environmental protection associations in Île-de-France.

Indeed, July 2022 was the second driest month ever recorded since 1959 according to Météo-France.

Farmers in the Paris region who see their soils drying out are worried.

In the region, the soil moisture index (SWI) increased in 2020 to 0.14 (where 0 represents dry soil) against an average of 0.33 from 1981 to 2010.

Many losses

For French farmers, it is difficult to get by with such heat.

Luc Smessaert, vice-president of the FNSEA (National Federation of Farmers' Unions), testifies to these difficulties: “Today in Île-de-France, the meadows are becoming real doormats.

We have a very bad fertilization.

Where we usually have 300 or 400 grains of maize per ear, we have more than 100 or 200”.

💧 ❌ A few days before the end of July, the monthly accumulation of precipitation across France is the lowest ever measured since 1959. Particularly high soil drought in many regions.

pic.twitter.com/kqgDrIfE0x

— Meteo-France (@meteofrance) July 27, 2022

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Although the threshold of "vigilance" established in Paris and its surroundings does not yet oblige to limit the use of water, Luc Smessart wishes to recall that "only 5% of French farmers irrigate their land artificially".

Fragmentation of environments

If the agricultural sector is strongly affected, the fauna and flora also suffer from the drought.

Faced with the heat, the water sources evaporate, disrupting an entire ecosystem: "Animal and plant species do not have time to adapt to the new temperatures", explains Nicolas Boudereaux, ecologist at Aven du Grand-Voyeux in Seine-et-Marne.

Faced with disappearing wetlands, Nicolas believes that we must learn to “share the water”.

It is imperative to avoid building houses near these areas, the main influencing factor of which is water.

This saves it and does not weaken this environment.

France has also undertaken to preserve them with the signing of the international Ramsar convention.

A convention to protect these areas with strong ecological, economic and social challenges.

From now on, scientists as well as farmers are asking to take an interest in water reserves.

Because if energy savings are made to protect the environment, soon we will have to think about also saving this precious source of life.

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