The French Alps and its surrounding region is weathering a difficult drought, with water restrictions imposed across the French Riviera amid warnings from experts that climate change has arrived in France and is painfully visible.
As part of efforts to prevent further damage to the water table, residents in eight towns and cities have been forbidden from washing their cars, filling their swimming pools or watering their lawns.
More restrictive measures may be announced during the week following a meeting between mayors, farmers unions, water companies and the Chamber of Commerce.
Broc Lake, a popular fishing spot not far from the Italian border, has lost six metres of water compared to the same period last year.
The Bureau of Meteorology on the Mediterranean tweeted "before and after" images showing exposed bands of limestone, warning the lake was emptying rapidly as the drought worsened.
📊☔️ #InfoRégion
— Météo Côte d'Azur ☀️ (@MeteoCotedAzur) March 26, 2022
26/03/2022 à 17h10 : Avant/après : le lac du #Broc(06) se vide rapidement avec la sécheresse… Les images parlent d'elles-mêmes ! 😢 #Nice06 #CotedAzurFrance #AlpesMaritimes #Meteo06 pic.twitter.com/FU0RkPaJFX
Unprecedented lack of rain this winter means the water table has not been able to recharge as usual and to feed the lake.
"We have dropped 25 centimetres below the lowest level, which was recorded in 2016," said Gilles Parodi, who heads the Alpes-Maritimes departmental nature park service.
Concerns multiply
The extent of the drought has also been made visible via satellite images that show the differences the alpine region has undergone between this year and 2020.
"We've never seen anything like this," said Jean-Philippe Frère, president of the FDSEA – the the main farmers' union in the Alpes-Maritimes.
"The water deficit has been ongoing since August last year. There was no rain in the autumn and March was dry.
“It's not the very rainy month of fools it used to be called."
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There are also fears the forest fire season will start early this year as the drought deepens, bringing strong winds.
Farmers, meanwhile, are under pressure to produce more wheat with the war in Ukraine threatening supply.
For this to happen, the harvests must be good – which requires rain. Right now farmers on the French Riviera, where streams have run dry, aren’t even allowed to water their crops.
“Climate change is here," Frère told France Info. “We were used to living on a water tower; our mountains gave us the necessary water.
“Today, with climate change, this is no longer the case. We have to learn to consume by counting our water.”
Country under threat
Other French regions including the entire western seaboard, from the English Channel to the southern Languedoc coast, the central Loire Valley and Corsica have also felt the sting of the drought.
Reports say water reserves are abnormally low – the national average rainfall deficit is 18 percent – and predications are the coming summer will be very difficult.
Dams, meanwhile, in Champagne and Provence – which support important agricultural activity – are far from full.
Only the Paris and Artois-Picardy basins, the latter in the north, have been able to retain their water stocks.
