He swims 32 kilometers in Lake Annecy to raise awareness of the drought
While the level of Lake Annecy is at its lowest, eco-adventurer Matthieu Witvoet took on the challenge of swimming across it this Saturday. Its objective: to raise awareness of drought and what is called virtual water.
In November 2021, he had achieved the feat of swimming across Lake Titicaca with Théo Curin. For his new challenge, Matthieu Witvoet has chosen to tackle a much smaller lake and in water where the temperature is frankly more pleasant: Lake Annecy. And this time, the objective is not to raise awareness of disability, but of drought, after a summer of all records.
“I have been living in Annecy since January, and as I go swimming in the lake every day, I have seen its level drop gradually”, says the 28-year-old eco-adventurer. Indeed, the lake loses about 1 centimeter per day in this period of unprecedented drought. “My idea therefore started from this frustration. I asked myself: what can I do at my level to alert the public to this problem?”he continues.
This Saturday, September 10, he therefore left at 5 a.m. from Doussard beach to swim across Lake Annecy in one direction, then return in the other. Or 32 kilometers and 11 hours of effort.
“It was very difficult especially on the way out, I thought I wasn’t going to make it. But the theme of water is so close to my heart that it carried me during my crossing”, he says the day after his challenge. Beyond the alarming observation of the lake’s drought, Matthieu Witvoet is also keen to examine the citizen solutions to be put in place.
“There is a relatively unknown concept called virtual water. In France, each person consumes 4,000 liters of water per day on average”, he says. Among these 4,000 liters, only 150 of them are directly linked to our consumption of tap water. The rest is linked to our consumption patterns, such as food, clothing or even digital objects.
“For example, it takes 15,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of industrial beef, which is 1,000 times more than a kilo of potatoes.let’s quote the eco-adventurer. The first has chosen what we can do, so it’s to halve our meat consumption.” Other solutions: install a rainwater collector, limit leaks or use a foamer in the shower.
“In the end, they are quite simple people to apply if we want to work on the resilience of our territory. In Annecy, there are so many people who are passionate about the lake that we can ask to achieve something”I hope the young man.
According to spies from Météo France, autumn will be particularly dry. The level of Lake Annecy therefore acquires its mad dash.