Caroline Baudry, edited by Solène Leroux 8:15 a.m., August 18, 2022

Continuation of our summer series on drought.

This Thursday morning, interview with Régis Blanchet, mayor of Buzançais.

This small town of less than 5,000 inhabitants is notably labeled "Floral City", which normally implies substantial watering.

However, these are currently restricted in the region.

The challenge of drought in the municipalities of France: this is our summer series on Europe 1. This Thursday morning, interview with Régis Blanchet, mayor of the city of Buzançais, in the Center-Val de Loire.

This small town of less than 5,000 inhabitants is notably labeled "Floral City", which normally implies substantial watering.

However, the latter are currently restricted in the region, as in a large part of France.

To keep its label, the town hall has been preparing for many years.

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To keep your label, have you anticipated and stored water to water your flowers?

We have had a sustainable development approach for several years now.

It's been five years since we anticipated, since we installed rainwater collection tanks on the roofs of our municipal buildings.

We have a capacity of 320 cubic meters year-round, which allows us to water about two cubic meters per week in the middle of summer.

The general public is informed because when we water, we have signs indicating 'rainwater recovery', so they know that it is not water in the groundwater.

Have you also chosen to turn to certain species of flowers?

For several years now, with my manager of the green spaces department and my assistant in charge of green spaces, we have chosen a range of plants, trees and shrubs adapted to the lack of water and to significant and brutal sunshine. as we have for several years.

This allows you to better adapt to this new climate.

Plants with fine foliage, which are less exposed to water evaporation, are preferred.

And then we also put mulch in the planters, which saves water.

We will continue this approach for the next summers, it is obvious, to face the new climate, and also the shortage of water.

In a way, we were ahead of other communities that are beginning to adopt this approach.