Itentions around the availability of water resources, in a context of global warming, will increase, putting pressure on our social organizations. The example of Sivens dam (Tarn), marked by the death of an environmental activist nine years ago, or the more recent project of mega-basins in the Deux-Sèvresshow the unpreparedness of public authorities to deal with increasingly frequent conflicts around water sharing.
In Ille-et-Vilaine, it was the ultimately abandoned project to set up a factory for the production of frozen pastries (Bridor) that illustrated the debates relating to economic development that did not really take into account the scarcity of the resource. in water.
In a department already heavily impacted by water pollutiona study led by Ronan Abhervénow a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Hydrogeology and Geothermal Energy in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, has made it possible to model and quantify the impact of climate change on the future availability of a resource: the Chèze dam, used to supply drinking water in the Rennes basin.
Regardless of the climate projections used, the results show the gradual disappearance of this water retention and the increase in periods of drought. Drought in 2022, the second worst since 1900, will become the norm by 2040.
Few spaces for debate
But what is this observation worth if we do not take the measure? Certainly, governance bodies exist, as well as regulatory tools governing, for example, water withdrawals, and more and more citizens are mobilizing around the need for better water sharing. But few spaces for debate exist today to raise the crucial question of the uses that it is imperative to preserve or develop, so as to ensure the habitability of territories where water will be lacking.
So, which bodies are legitimate to decide that a factory manufacturing frozen croissants mainly intended for export, which will consume more than 200,000 cubic meters of water per year, is essential or not to a territory that has already experienced water restrictions? How to train and support local elected officials facing the challenge of reindustrialization in a disrupted climate context? How are the inhabitants affected by the renewal of the drought decrees, which nevertheless exempt primary processing agri-food companies from any restriction, without any conditions?
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