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France and Germany suffer 'most serious' drought on record

A cow stands in a field at the Marais Breton in Villeneuve-en-Retz, France - STEPHANE MAHE /REUTERS
A cow stands in a field at the Marais Breton in Villeneuve-en-Retz, France - STEPHANE MAHE /REUTERS

France and Germany are suffering the “most serious” drought on record with Italy and Spain enduring their worst water shortages for decades as Europe braces for another heatwave.

More than 100 French towns have been left short of drinking water, instead relying on emergency trucks for supplies during a drought blamed on climate change by ministers in Emmanuel Macron’s government.

Water use is restricted in 93 of France’s 96 departments in an effort to conserve supplies amid temperatures that have led to hosepipe bans in parts of Britain.

Irrigation is banned across parts of north-west and south-east France, which has led to warnings that crops could fail.

A caretaker feeds a squirrel that was taken in the CSAM wildlife centre due to hot weather and drought in Saint-Cezaire-Sur-Siagne, France - ERIC GAILLARD /REUTERS
A caretaker feeds a squirrel that was taken in the CSAM wildlife centre due to hot weather and drought in Saint-Cezaire-Sur-Siagne, France - ERIC GAILLARD /REUTERS

Elisabeth Borne, the prime minister, said the drought was “the most serious ever recorded in our history”, while last month the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre warned almost half of EU territory was at risk of drought.

Experts expect conditions to worsen over the next two weeks as the country braces for a fourth heatwave with scorching 40C temperatures.

Salt farmers in the north-western region of Guerande are among the few to benefit from the soaring temperatures, which have turbocharged salt water evaporation and brought record levels of production.

French salt maker Francois Durand harvests sea salt from a salt pan in Le Pouliguen, west France. The country's record heatwave has seen salt yields nearly double - YANN TESSIER /REUTERS
French salt maker Francois Durand harvests sea salt from a salt pan in Le Pouliguen, west France. The country's record heatwave has seen salt yields nearly double - YANN TESSIER /REUTERS

Weeks of scorching weather have left lakes and rivers in Italy at record lows, city dwellers struggling to deal with the sweltering temperatures and farmers fearing for their crops as the country is gripped by the worst drought for decades.

A dry winter and exceptionally torrid summer means that 2022 is likely to be the hottest and driest year on record for Italy, according to the National Research Council.

Between January and July, temperatures were 0.98C above average. However in July, temperatures were more than 2C above average - second only to July 2003.

"If 2022 finished now, it would be the hottest year ever," Michele Brunetti of the National Research Council told the Ansa news agency.

The north of Italy has been the hardest hit, with the Po River at exceptionally low levels and the high temperatures leading to the collapse of a section of glacier in the Dolomites which killed 11 hikers.

A boat moored on dry waters on the Po River in the province of Rovigo, Italy - Ciancaphoto Studio
A boat moored on dry waters on the Po River in the province of Rovigo, Italy - Ciancaphoto Studio

The drought is likely to lead to financial losses amounting to more than six billion euros for the agriculture sector, according to Coldiretti, a national farmers' association.

Parts of Spain are the driest they have been in a thousand years due to an atmospheric high-pressure system driven by climate change, according to a study published last month in the journal, Nature Geoscience.

Greenpeace estimates that 75 per cent of the country is susceptible to desertification.

Reservoirs are at their lowest level for a decade, prompting the introduction of a range of restrictions at the time of year when tourism means demand is at its highest.

The enormous network of reservoirs is at a nationwide capacity of 38 per cent, with some regions in the south of the country almost out of supplies.

The water reservoir in Peraleda de San Roman, Spain is nearly empty - Pablo Blazquez Dominguez /Getty Images Europe
The water reservoir in Peraleda de San Roman, Spain is nearly empty - Pablo Blazquez Dominguez /Getty Images Europe

Málaga's La Viñuela reservoir is at 12.7 per cent capacity, leading to limits on irrigation hitting crops such as avocados and beach showers being shut off.

The greener northern regions of Spain are also restricting access to mains water. Galicia cuts off supplies at night and the Basque Country has imposed a ban on refilling swimming pools, watering gardens and washing cars.

In Germany, there are fears that the river Rhine will have to be closed to lucrative cargo boats because the water levels have dropped so low.

Water levels in the Ems river in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, have fallen to 89 centimetres, from an average of 157cm.

Young plants grow in dried mud on the exposed river bed of the River Rhine near Pfalzgrafenstein castle in Kaub, Germany - Ben Kilb /Bloomberg
Young plants grow in dried mud on the exposed river bed of the River Rhine near Pfalzgrafenstein castle in Kaub, Germany - Ben Kilb /Bloomberg

Michael Stübgen, the interior minister of the north-eastern state of Brandenburg, where very little rain has fallen in recent weeks, said Germany’s drought "is the worst that the country has experienced in its history".

In the drought-hit Netherlands, the government is taking emergency steps to protect its famous network of dykes, which protect it from flooding.

With Belgium expecting its hottest spell of 2022 this week, people have been advised to not light fires and plans for a business park in Antwerp have been shelved to instead build a large-scale water reserve.