Drought: this Vienne town reuses swimming pool water for its green spaces

Caroline Baudry, edited by Solène Leroux 11:03 a.m., August 19, 2022

INTERVIEW

Heat waves, fires, drought... Colossal challenges for the mayors of France, who each have their own solutions to try to save a rare resource: water.

This is your appointment on Europe 1. Since Monday, we have been calling these elected officials to the four corners of the territory.

This Friday morning, interview with Jean-Pierre Abelin, the mayor of Châtellerault, in Vienne.

It is a flower town, but watering is prohibited with water restrictions.

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To water your green spaces,

water from the municipal swimming pool: how does that work?

It is in fact the rinsing water from the swimming pool filters, an operation that is carried out every day.

The water is filtered and then stored in a tank, which also allows a large part of the chlorine in the swimming pool to evaporate.

It is 20 to 30 cubic meters of water per day which is recovered in this way.

The water is then transferred each day in three vehicles equipped with cisterns, with a total capacity of ten cubic meters.

We have several rotations to deplete and use the water that has been collected.

We put a very clear message on the tank trucks to show that it was recycling and that it was not a traditional use of water.

It worked well, but there was a risk that the population would think that we were watering against the precepts of the prefect and the minister.

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Information so that there is no ambiguity.

Is this recycling process a way of anticipating the summers to come?

This is a system that we put in place a number of years ago and which has proven its worth.

It has been improved a bit recently to be able to be even more operational in this somewhat difficult period for everyone.

Obviously, we are heading towards warm years and therefore this problem will arise in the years to come.

Probably even under even more extreme conditions.

Therefore, we will no doubt have to imagine still other complementary solutions.