27 Feb. () –
The Minister of Ecological Transition of France, Christophe Béchu, met this Monday with the regional prefects and has called on them to immediately adopt restrictions on water consumption because otherwise “it would be irresponsible”.
“Don’t let your hand shake (…). Not adopting restrictive measures today would be irresponsible,” Béchu said after the appointment, according to the French press.
Thus, it has summoned them to anticipate and implement measures that facilitate water saving from now on. “If necessary, restriction orders will have to be imposed now so that the water is preserved for the summer,” Béchu pointed out in a column published in ‘Le Journal du Dimanche’.
In the appointment with the prefects, Béchu intends to “plan” with them the “problems of water scarcity” and encourage them once again to “take the necessary measures”, “department by department”.
He has previously explained on BFMTV television that “soil moisture levels are below normal in all departments.” “We have three regions, Occitanie, the South region and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, in which soil moisture is comparable to that at the end of May”, he highlighted.
The Pyrénées-Orientales has been on a high alert level since the end of last week and until April 30, so it is prohibited to water the lawn, wash vehicles outside the washing stations and fill the pool. The prefectures of Isère, Bouches-du-Rhône and Var have taken similar measures.
