Can you still water your garden in Toulouse? –
As is the case in many departments of Occitanie, Haute-Garonne is subject to water restrictions due to drought and lack of rain, but what about Toulouse in practice? Are individuals affected? Can you still water your garden? Where to fill your swimming pool?
Since last June, the prefectures of Occitania chain the decrees of water restrictions. The Tarn-et-Garonne, the Gard, the Lot, the Ariège, the Hautes-Pyrénées, the Hérault, the Aveyron and even the Gers are thus subject to very specific constraints with regard to water withdrawals from rivers. or some groundwater. And this is also the case in Haute-Garonne, since July 16. But depending on the alert level, the measures are not the same and do not necessarily concern the entire population.
Is Toulouse affected by water restrictions?
For now, the Garonne is not affected by water restrictions. Only some of its smaller tributaries are. Thus, it is downstream of the river that its water flow begins to decrease. Despite very significant destocking from the hydroelectric reservoirs of the Ariège (representing a third of the water of the Garonne in Toulouse) for the low water level support of the Garonne, the flow of the Garonne downstream (at Lamagistère) is particularly low,” explains the prefecture.
All the different uses of water by abstraction from the Garonne, as well as from all the waterways of metropolitan Toulouse are therefore authorised, for farmers, communities and individuals. So you can water your garden, your vegetable garden, fill your swimming pool or even wash your car. On the other hand, it is strongly advised to limit these practices to what is strictly necessary during the summer months because nothing is immutable, and what is possible today may not be possible tomorrow, precisely because the samples of water will have been too much in times of non-restrictions.
When can water restrictions be described?
Indeed, if the flow of the Garonne continues to decline, it is not excluded that measures restricting the use of water will be put in place in Toulouse. These restrictions being strictly prohibited: they could be authorized in the Pink City this summer in the event of the alert thresholdi.e. if the average daily flow falls below 41 m3 per second for three consecutive days. The monitoring of this indicator being taken at the Portet-sur-Garonne reference station. The challenge would then be to “limit the overall debit taken by 15 to 30%”, specifies the prefecture in the “Interdepartmental drought action plan for the Garonne sub-basin“. If the reinforced alert thresholdfixed at 35m3 per second was exceeded for three days, the restrictions would be even more restrictive to reach a limitation of 50% of the total flow taken. Finally, if the flow of the Garonne falls below 27 m3 per second during the summer months, for two days, the sector would switch to crisis threshold and the abstraction of water in Toulouse would be totally prohibited, with the exception of the use of drinking water.
What are the prohibitions to respect then?
From the transition to alert thresholdhere is prohibited list which must be accepted:
- Washing vehicles outside professional stations
- filling and leveling of private swimming pools during the day
- watering lawns and green spaces (excluding vegetable gardens) from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- filling and upgrading personal recreational water bodies.
In the event of crossing the heightened alert and crisis threshold, the following will then be prohibited:
- Washing of vehicles outside professional stations
- the filling of private swimming pools. Their leveling must be done at night
- watering lawns and green spaces (excluding vegetable gardens)
- watering the vegetable gardens from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- filling and leveling personal recreational water bodies