Exceptional drought: more than 1,400 rivers drying up in France

The state of small rivers is very worrying. “With 30 additional rivers dried up or without flow compared to 2022 and 290 more than at the same period in 2025, the level of degradation remains exceptional,” warned the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) on Wednesday in a press release. These figures “definitely exceed the records of the record drought of 2022”. “There are now 1,424 rivers at the head of watersheds which are affected by flow disruptions or drying out,” adds the OFB, which relies on figures recorded by the National Low Water Observatory (ONDE). A “dry” means that there is no flow of water on the surface of the stream bed, the most critical level of the monitoring system.

Lack of rain and extreme heat

The cause of this deterioration is a persistent lack of rain and almost uninterrupted heat since the end of May, which dried out the soil and then the groundwater, the main sources of water for the rivers.

“The most critical situations remain concentrated along the axis going from Vendée to the Grand-Est region, while an intensification is observed in Brittany, in Pays-de-la-Loire and in the north of New Aquitaine,” underlines the OFB.

The organization cites the departments of Creuse, Vendée, Loire-Atlantique, Aveyron, Côte-d’Or and Nièvre among the most affected departments.