We get used to everything and sometimes this habituation is a big problem. An example: global warming. It’s no surprise that the weather is so beautiful and so warm from March, it’s normal, and we celebrate these first beautiful days as if nothing happened. Only this is in reality not normal and especially not pleasant. Demonstration with hydrologist Emma Haziza who prefers to warn us: “I don’t think we understood what’s happening in front of us.”
Emma Haziza was invited to respond to the first droughts of the year in France and took the opportunity to sound the alarm. It was Tuesday, March 29, 2022, at the microphone of france info† Lamenting the lack of rain “Extremely important” experienced by France this winter, it reminds us that the underground aquifers have not been able to charge with water and warns:
“Any rain that comes after that will be reused by the vegetation to give this lush spring vegetation, but this rain won’t have time left to reach the water table.”
A phenomenon that is all the more worrying because it repeats itself and therefore worsens from year to year:
“We have had historic droughts since 2017 (..) We can reach 75% of the precipitation deficit in the Pyrénées-Orientales. The tablecloths are also extremely low. If all the bodies of water that should last until summer fail in March, that’s a problem. Above all, the aggravating parameter is that with each heat wave, we have a territory that plunges even more into a state of drought. As we move towards a hotter and drier summer, which appears to be the case, we are at risk of another historic drought.”
Emma Haziza worries Emma Haziza about the multiplication of these winter droughts combined with summer heat waves, and for good reason:
“The issue of our food resilience arises today because we have no agriculture that can feed the population (..) The issue of water is also an issue of electricity and food is a global phenomenon.”
🔴🗣 Drought Warning ➡️ “It’s abnormal, but it’s abnormal is getting normal. We have had historic droughts since 2017. We have 1/5 of our rivers that have 40% less flow,” explains Emma Haziza. “There is great concern” about this summer. pic.twitter.com/64ZCAIVmDz
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) March 29, 2022
The hydrologist sees only one solution: “Reshaping our agriculture to feed our people in the first place.”
The presidential campaign is taking place amid a drought that could have disastrous consequences. However, the issue of water, an essential element if there ever was one, is far from central to the debates. It is time, even urgent, for this topic to be taken seriously. We don’t talk more or less about our future.