Jean Castex announces a development of water storage for agriculture

In conclusion of the vare of the water, a consultation on the responses to the effects of climate change, the Prime Minister gave pledges to the operators.

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“Access to water must evolve to identify new resources for agricultural needs,” said Jean Castex, who came in person to conclude the Agricultural Varenne of Water, Tuesday 1 er February. The Prime Minister emphasized the urgency to financially support a sector that climate change disrupts – he announced a new help of 200 million euros. These developments will have to be “in the respect of other uses, such as drinking water,” he considered it good to specify.

France must meet the challenge of “reconciling the indispensable, the inevitable ecological transition and the no less necessary wealth creation”. It is a question of maintaining the level of agricultural production, even as “the conflicts of use increased in France”, acknowledged Mr. Castex, who says aimed a consensus “the widest possible, but not the unanimity: it would be suspect on such difficult subject “.

Launched in May 2021, this consultation was to identify concrete solutions to climate hazards. Wanted by the Head of State, it is in principle placed under the shared guardianship of the Ministry of the Ecological Transition and that of agriculture, which organized it. It will probably date, because this Varenne marks an inflection in the water policy in France, so far the responsibility of the Ministry of the Ecological Transition. The Prime Minister has indeed announced the appointment for three years of an interdepartmental delegate to ensure the application of a series of measures to secure the availability, and therefore the storage, water for operators .

Territorialized management

The regulatory texts must be changed soon, in order to “better use the resources in winter”, to “capture excess water to store it until the following summer”, details the Prime Minister. A budget line must be allocated to this file within the Ministry of Agriculture. Local communities and hydroelectric barrier managers are called upon to rescue. European credits could also be devoted to the future – the European Union, however, has to finance additional catchments in territories already suffering from droughts. In the eyes of some, the rains, which swell the rivers, supply floors, vegetation and animals, and recharge underground tablecloths, represent “lost deposits” that they intend to put in reserve.

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/Media reports.