Nina Pavan, edited by Gauthier Delomez 06:11, August 17, 2022

Along the Verdon, several artificial lakes have been built to store water and supply much of Provence during the summer.

With the episodes of drought and the pumping that continues, the Gorges du Verdon are almost dry in some places.

Europe 1 went there to see this drop in the water level.

At Lake Sainte-Croix, in the Gorges du Verdon, the water level drops by 20 centimeters per day.

It is the result of the pumping of water, coupled with an intense evaporation phenomenon.

"For us, it's critical," says Léa Sertirano, manager of Crystal Nautic, on Europe 1. "Every morning, we descend 20 meters from the shore, we put our equipment in the water and in the evening, we have to do everything It's only our second year of operation, we still haven't paid ourselves a salary."

At Crystal Nautic, the staff would like the pumping of water to be done more equitably on all the artificial water reservoirs.

But what Léa would like to remind you above all is that the lake remains passable.

"Since the closure of part of the gorges, we have recorded - 80% attendance. The lake of Sainte-Croix is ​​2,200 hectares to visit", she specifies.

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Economic repercussions on the whole of the Verdon

A few kilometers away, at the artificial lake of Esparron, professionals are also suffering from a drop in attendance.

However, not a drop of water is missing, explains Sylvain, manager of Verdon Canoë Paddle.

"The lower and middle Verdon are less well known than the upper Verdon", he says.

"When we communicate on 'the Verdon', the holidaymaker does not make the difference between Esparron, Sainte-Croix or Lake Castillon. Since the dissemination of images of the dry gorges, the drop in attendance is concrete for this entire geographical area “, laments Sylvain.

The manager therefore fears difficult future seasons: "Awareness of climate change must be global. But we would like to avoid the double penalty: that the drought is compounded by economic difficulties for our entire sector."

Levies will drop by 10 to 20%

The Canal de Provence company (SCP), which operates the artificial lakes along the Verdon to supply water to all of Provence downstream, ensures that the withdrawals will drop by 10 to 20%, at the request of the regional council.

"The objective is solidarity between the upstream, the water tower that is the Alpine massif, and the downstream, in particular the Mediterranean rim", explains Jean-Marc Philip, commercial and innovation director at the Canal de Provence company.

"It will be a response to this exceptional situation in the year 2022."

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SCP plans to use the Bimont dam in Aix-en-Provence, as well as relying on the resources of the Arc basin, which has its source in the Var.

All the municipalities supplied by these artificial reservoirs did not experience a shortage of running water this summer.

With the drying up of certain local sources, new municipalities may need to tap into artificial lakes.