Water shortages across the continent, from France through Italy, Spain and beyond, are creating a critical situation
the prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, last week activated a crisis unit to tackle a drought Météo-France described as the country’s worst since records began in 1958.
The electricity utility EDF was last week forced to reduce output from one of its nuclear reactors in south-western France because of high water temperatures in the Garonne River, and has issued multiple similar warnings for reactors along the Rhône.’s water reserves are at all-time low of 40% and have been falling at a rate of 1.5% a week through a combination of increased consumption and evaporation, according to the government, in what is likely to be the driest of the past 60 years.
A post-pandemic tourism revival has also led to a rise in consumption by as much as 10% in cities such as Barcelona, where – if there is no rainfall soon, and none is forecast – restrictions are likely to be imposed next month. “No similar data in the last 230 years compares with the drought and heat we are experiencing this year. Then we have had storms … These episodes are growing in frequency and intensity, exactly as forecast by climate reports over the last 30 years. Why do we continue to wait to make this a priority?”. The flow rate of Italy’s longest waterway has fallen to one-tenth of the usual figure, while its water level is 2 metres below normal.
The drought has hit German waterways just as freight vessels are supposed to carry increased amounts of coal in order to service the power plants that the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, hasAn inland vessel navigates on the Rhine as the partially dried-up river bed is seen in the foreground in Düsseldorf, western Germany.In the capital, Berlin, authorities have recorded falling water levels at the many lakes fed by the River Spree.
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