Nearly 70 percent of France under water restrictions amid record heat

Nearly 70 percent of France is subject to water-use restrictions as drought conditions worsen amid successive heatwaves, the government said Monday.

A series of heatwaves over the past three months, compounded by drought, have broken temperature records, caused thousands of excess deaths, and fuelled massive wildfires.

"As France is experiencing a particularly severe drought, the effects of climate change continue to increase pressure on water resources," the ministry for ecological transition said, adding that "nearly 70 percent of French territory is subject to restrictions on water use".

As of August 9, the vast majority of mainland France, including Paris, was under at least the first water warning level, with 67 of the country's 101 departments under the highest crisis alert.

In areas subject to the highest alert, water is reserved for priority uses such as healthcare, civil protection, drinking water and sanitation.

Under lower alert levels, restrictions apply to activities such as watering gardens and green spaces, filling swimming pools, washing cars and irrigating crops.

In a further sign of the worsening drought across much of heatwave-pummelled Europe, two thirds of the aquifers that provide most of France's drinking water have dropped below their normal levels, the country's Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) said on Monday.

The drawdown of groundwater reserves, common during the summer, is particularly pronounced this year "due to the shortfall in effective rainfall in July and the increase in water demand for various purposes", particularly in agriculture and tourism, the BRGM said.

July 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded in France and the third driest July in terms of precipitation, with a nationwide rainfall deficit of nearly 70 percent, according to national weather agency Meteo-France.

Ecology minister Monique Barbut said on July 27 that drinking water supplies were "under strain in several areas", noting that tap water cuts were already affecting "more than 30,000 people", with drinking water supplied to residents by tanker trucks or bottled water.

The minister will convene a crisis meeting on the drought on Wednesday, which comes as France and swaths of Europe faces another heatwave.

Meteo-France warned on Monday the southeast would see temperatures as high as 35C, spreading further across the country as the week progresses.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)