The drought is not improving, half of the small rivers are dry, warns the OFB

This is an unprecedented situation since the beginning of surveys 15 years ago and which shows no sign of improvement. Nearly half (49.6%) of small French rivers were dry at the end of September, according to the French Biodiversity Office (OFB). In absolute value, this situation concerns 1,594 initial sections of watercourses (the part closest to the sources, where they are still only small streams), which provide 55 to 70% of the water of the rivers located downstream. All French regions are affected. The most critical situations are located along an axis going from Vendée to the Grand Est region, where the deterioration continues, while a worsening is observed in Occitanie and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

“This is the most serious situation we have seen since 2012 and it is above all, and this is what worries us, a situation which extends over time,” commented an OFB official on Tuesday October 13. The persistence of this situation “for more than four months in the same sectors” is in fact unprecedented since the start of monitoring. The situation has even worsened since August, "while stabilization or improvement is generally observed during the month of September." “The scale, precocity and persistence of these phenomena demonstrate a particularly high level of degradation, likely to have significant consequences on aquatic ecosystems,” underlined the OFB. This drought situation is associated "with increases in temperature in waterways, which also have impacts, mortality (...), long-term reproductive capacity, circulation of species, etc.", further commented the head of the OFB.