Record Rainfall Recharges Water Levels
22nd April 2024
Most parts of the country should escape a drought this year, say French geological experts.
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Record Rainfall Recharges Water Levels
22nd April 2024
Most parts of the country should escape a drought this year, say French geological experts.
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According to the latest report from the the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) “The state of the water tables is satisfactory over a large part of the territory.”
Only in Roussillon and the Corbières Massif does there remain a cause for concern.
With 58% of levels above normal, the BRGM states that the situation is much more favorable than in the last two years, which were marked by drought and restrictions on access to drinking water.
According to the BRGM, the “particularly abundant”, rain in recent months has had the merit of “intensely” recharging the water tables, the level of which was still particularly worrying at the start of autumn.
Across the country 27% of observation points are below monthly normal, 15% are comparable and 58% are above (respectively 36%, 18% and 46% in February), observe the authors of the report.
Compared to last year, at the same period, the difference is striking. While the water table levels of March 2023 showed a map of France mainly yellow and orange – with 75% of the levels which were below normal – the 2024 map (below) is almost completely blue, a sign of water table levels considered high.
To date, 62 departments have levels considered above average and around fifteen below (including only four still having “very low” levels), according to the specialist 'info-sécheresse' website which follows 420 groundwater tables in France.
The situation remains disparate, however, as not all regions benefited equally from the rains which hit the country.
Certain water tables thus find themselves in an “unfavorable” position, such as in Sundgau (southern Alsace) where “the situation is improving very slowly” but with levels which remain low.
Also in Hérault, on the Valras-Agde aquifer, the levels are still “very low” since “the rains of January and March 2024 were not sufficient to compensate for the deficits accumulated over the last three years”.
But it is in the Corbières massif (Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales) and the Roussillon plain (Pyrénées-Orientales) that the situation remains “very worrying” in a context of rainfall deficit for almost two years.
The state of their water tables is thus “extremely degraded”, some points even observing “levels in continuous decline since May 2022” and reaching “historically low levels”.
In terms of the outlook, the BRGM explains that "the recharge period should end in April or May, depending on the rainfall totals and the reactivity of the aquifer" since from the month of April, "the rise in temperatures, the resumption of vegetation and therefore the increase in evaporation will clearly limit the infiltration of rain towards the water tables.”
The recharge episodes should then remain “punctual and not very intense, except for significant rainfall events”. Some areas could therefore find themselves “in tension during the summer”.
Unsurprisingly, the situation will have to be “particularly monitored” on the coast of Languedoc, Roussillon. “On the west of the Mediterranean rim (notably Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales), any rains should have little impact” and“ it is very unlikely that the volumes of water infiltrated during the spring will be able to compensate for the deficits accumulated since 2022”.
As a result, in Pyrénées-Orientales the prefectural water restriction orders should not be lifted before the fall, especially since, on the other side of the border, the north-east of Spain has been placed in a state of emergency.