PARIS: France is facing its worst water shortage since 1976, with rivers drying up, reservoirs struggling to meet demand, and rationing measures introduced in the most severely hit areas. In some regions water levels are at their lowest for 54 years after nine months of exceptionally dry weather and up to 60% less rainfall than normal. Farmers say their crops are at risk. Restrictions on irrigating fields, introduced in 50 of the country’s 95 departments, are already hitting cereal production, according to agriculture specialists.

Teams of “water police” have been patrolling farming areas to enforce the restrictions on irrigation and handing out fines of up to 1,500 (£1,000). But faced with losing their crops many farmers are prepared to risk being caught.

“Those who are watering their fields know they are doing so against the regulations,” Marylise Boche, president of the Association of Irrigators, said. “They’re not doing it to be provocative, but quite simply to save their business.” One farmer caught watering despite the ban said: “If I stop irrigating, I will lose 20,000 and have to lay off all my workers.”

Widespread water rationing was introduced by the ministry of agriculture and ecology on Friday, nine months after the first signs of a drought were reported last September. Nelly Olin, the ecology minister, appealed to the public to conserve supplies. “The ground under our country is dying of thirst,” she told the newspaper Le Parisien.

“I understand the farmers’ concerns but I’ve told them there’s no other solution but to partly stop their irrigation. I’d like to praise the efforts of those who’ve switched to crops which don’t use as much water.”

In several regions rivers have been reduced to a trickle, with fish dying.

Households in the worst affected areas are subject to a hosepipe ban and face fines for washing their cars or filling swimming pools. In some villages reservoirs are being filled by supplies driven in by water tankers. However, a spokesman for a fishing association in the Oise region, north of Paris, said many people were ignoring the ban.

“I recently saw a football ground being watered with sprinklers. It’s illegal and what’s more it’s not even the football season,” he said.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service