Where water is called ‘blue gold’: A town grapples with one of its worst droughts on record.
Where water is called ‘blue gold’: A town grapples with one of its worst droughts on record #water #called #blue #gold #town #grapples #worst #droughts #record Welcome to Viasildes, here is the new story we have for you today:
For well over a century, water has gurgled through a web of gutters and channels on Cécile Messelis’ farm, flowing into an underground reservoir and earthen troughs to nourish crops sown across terraced fields.
In 2020, that stream began to falter. This year, it stopped altogether: Messelis’ fields now crackle in the sunlight; her stone cistern echoes with thirst.
On this small farm in the upper reaches of Seillans, a commune in the Var region of southern France, the fields are bare but for the parched remnants of the last harvest. Normally, aubergines, tomatoes, peppers and melons thrive here. Now, the fields lie fallow.
Messelis’ reservoirs first ran empty after last winter was remarkably dry. She then had to rely on tap water to grow the organic fruit and vegetables that make up the baskets she sells to neighbors and at local markets.
France is suffering what authorities say is likely its worst drought on record. It’s a similar picture across much of Europe — more than 60% of land in the European Union is under drought warnings or more severe alerts, according to the European Drought Observatory.
The rain has been so scant that major rivers are drying up in parts. The Loire and Rhone in France, the Po in Italy and the Rhine in Germany have all experienced particularly low water levels, some of them have even shrunk, impacting transport, agriculture and energy production.
Now downpours are hitting several parts of the country. In the Loire region of central France, they’ve triggered flooding. The soil is so parched, like a dry sponge, it simply can’t absorb that much rain. In Paris, floods that hit Tuesday evening forced 10 underground Metro stations to close. The stormy weather has brought relief from the heat, but little to break the drought. What’s needed is less intense and more consistent rain over much longer periods of time.
In January, when worries about the dry winter emerged, Seillans’ authorities proposed to sell Messelis emergency water supplies that had been trucked in at €20 ($20.40) per cubic meter (around 264 gallons), she said. Private suppliers were offering only slightly cheaper rates. Normally, she would pay just around 50 cents ($0.51) for the same amount from the tap.
Unlike generations past, Messelis’ neighbors today are more likely to have a swimming pool than a vegetable plot, a somewhat cruel irony for her this summer: In the first period of water restrictions, residents were still allowed to top up their pools, while her crops withered.
