He's back on the field. For his first regional trip in two months, Emmanuel Macron chose to go to the Hautes-Alpes on Thursday 30 March to present a long-awaited plan to improve the management of water, a resource threatened by droughts and global warming.

This trip to the mountain town of Savines-le-Lac, on Lake Serre-Ponçon, comes in a context of political and social crisis caused by the pension reform, but also at the end of a particularly dry winter, which illustrates the challenges of global warming.

"With climate change, the water cycle in France has undergone significant changes in recent decades," said the Elysee, which cites various episodes of drought such as in 2022, the decrease in the level of groundwater and the evolution of the rhythm of rainfall.

"These changes affect many sectors such as agriculture, energy, leisure or industry" and require "moving towards a more sober, more resilient and better concerted system," the presidency said.

"In order to meet these challenges, the Head of State will propose a series of measures aimed at redefining, in conjunction with elected officials and local authorities, our water management policy to adapt it to the challenges of climate change," she added.

The President will be accompanied by the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu. Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau, initially announced alongside the head of state, will finally attend the congress of the majority agricultural union FNSEA in Angers.

He is expected to present the agricultural component of the plan to union leaders on Thursday. The maintenance of his appearance before the first agricultural federation of France, which defends in particular the principle of "basins" for irrigation, was experienced Wednesday as a victory by the congressmen.

Reduce waste

The presentation of the "water plan" was initially announced on January 26, then postponed several times.

The principle of this plan launched at the end of September after a scorching summer and the second worst soil drought, is to "prepare for next summer". It "could be difficult if the weather situation does not improve", with "particular vigilance on the issue of drinking water".

The second objective of this plan aims at "in-depth transformations to build infrastructure adapted to climate change" by 2030, said the Elysee during a telephone briefing.

Fifty measures must be presented, to reduce waste, avoid conflicts of use – primarily with farmers – and rationalize a governance still considered complex and incoherent last month by the Court of Auditors. Issues relating to the reuse of wastewater, leaks but also the price of water, will also be addressed.

>> Read on France 24.com: Hydroelectricity, a "key energy" to the test of global warming

From the launch of the consultations this autumn, the government had recalled the ambition set at the Assises de l'Eau in 2019: to reduce "withdrawals by 10% by 2025 and 25% by 2035", i.e. more than 3 then 8 billion cubic meters of fresh water savings to be found.

"This plan will take care of quantity – how we do with less" and "quality," said Monday Christophe Béchu.

"All sectors – industry, agriculture, tourism and leisure, communities, individuals, etc. – will be mobilized, because it is indeed all French people who must be engaged to bring our water policy into a new era, that of climate change (...) and set the course for mobilization to face this new challenge in the image of what has been successful on energy, "said the Elysee.

32 days without rain

As for the sobriety in electricity, demanded and obtained this winter, could an "Ecowatt" of water encourage to reduce domestic uses? The French consume about 148 liters per day and per person, the volume of a bathtub, including 40% for personal hygiene and 20% for flushing, according to Ademe.

But one of the most scrutinized aspects of the plan will be that concerning agriculture, the main consumer of water through irrigation (more than 2 billion m3), admittedly practiced only on 7% of cultivated areas but most often in summer, when the resource is scarce.

"It will take consultation at the local level," insisted the Elysee.

This presentation comes at the end of a particularly dry winter, with a record of 32 days without rain, which did not allow to replenish the water tables, for 80% below normal on March 1st.

In this context, tensions are simmering over the use of water, as illustrated Saturday by the demonstration against the agricultural "mega-basin" of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), marked by a pitched battle between gendarmes and some hooded demonstrators.

The head of state will also make this exit in a context of persistent crisis around the pension reform, before a new day of mobilization on April 6.

With AFP

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