Let’s talk about Vallon-Pont-d’Arc: a charming little town in southern France, nestled beside the winding Ardèche river. It’s so cute, with its red-tiled new-build homes and growing population. Every summer, it gets a boost from kayaking enthusiasts, who flock to its beautiful waters like seagulls to a discarded sandwich. But here’s the catch – after a serious lack of rain, the locals are freaking out about dwindling water supplies. Thierry Devimeux, the local prefect, has decided to limit not just the use of water, but the expansion of the town altogether, making it the 22nd commune in the département to ban new building. Bummer for anyone who was hoping to open a water park there.
Southern Europe is currently in the grips of its second major drought in less than a year. And this one is a doozy – it’s a winter drought. Apparently, for 32 whole days in January and February, it didn’t rain even once in France. That’s the longest dry spell in winter since they started keeping track in 1959. Even the French fries are parched.
If you think that’s bad, Italy is dealing with some seriously dry business. Areas on either side of the Po river are producing a third less agricultural output than usual. Skiers who were hoping to hit the slopes this season found out the hard way that there was hardly any snow to work with – Switzerland even reported record snow lows on some of its slopes. The Alps are basically Europe’s water-tower, but with such little snow to melt, river levels are going to be scant, which is bad news for the people and plants that depend on them for hydration.
Politicians are trying to do their bit to help out. French President Emmanuel Macron recently visited a depleted reservoir down south and unveiled a 53-point plan to save 10% of the country’s water consumption by 2030. Italy’s cabinet has also whipped together an emergency program of action, with a crisis group that has 30 days to report back. But they’ve got their work cut out for them. Italy’s environment minister recently revealed that pipeline leakage in the country averages a walloping 37%. That’s like flushing 37% of your toilet water straight down the drain.
Spain knows all too well the pain of drought. The country has experienced several throughout its history, with the earliest recorded ones dating back to the years when Muslim caliphs in al-Andalus and bishops in Christian Spain started instructing their clergy to pray for rain. But Spain has tried to keep up. During Franco’s reign, reservoir storage was expanded tenfold (although we’re pretty sure it wasn’t done kindly or gently). But even with all that preparation, there is still a water shortage in the southern regions. And if they can’t grow veggies or make olive oil, that’s gonna spell trouble.
Sharing water can be tricky, and in Spain, it’s often contentious. Three regions are even taking the central government to court over cuts to an existing water-transfer scheme that would cost them 12,000 hectares of agricultural output. That being said, the new water transfer from the Tagus river to La Mancha (yes, like Don Quixote) did go ahead in March. So we know it’s not a completely lost cause.
As for what’s next, who knows? We’ve got a feeling a dry spring could really take the ‘agriculture’ out of ‘agriculture’. Food prices could spike again, and empty waterways could be closed to big barges, which would hike up transportation costs. Hydroelectric plants could suffer, too – they produced a lot less energy in 2020, and their reservoirs are only partially filled in Italy. As long as droughts keep happening, Europe has a lot of work to do before it can towel off.
