ten figures on the use of water in France

The sobriety plan on the water will be published “in a few days” and will be “very complete”, promised Saturday March 11 the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, during an interview with TV5 Monde.

This plan, requested by Emmanuel Macron on February 25 during a visit to the Agricultural Show, should include around fifty measures relating to sobriety, financial means or even the governance of water management. .

While France has just gone through an unprecedented winter drought, the objective is to reduce the volume of water taken from our basements by 10% by the end of the five-year period. The opportunity to take stock of the use of water in France in ten key figures.

5.3 billion cubic meters of water consumed each year

Of these 5.3 billion cubic meters consumed, 45% is linked to agricultural uses, 31% to the cooling of power stations, 21% to the production of drinking water and 3% to industrial uses. This figure, taken from an average over the period 2008-2018, should be distinguished from water withdrawals, which represent 33 billion cubic meters each year.

While nuclear power plants represent 51% of the water withdrawn, they only represent, for example, 31% of the water consumed, due to the fact that part of the water used in open circuits is then returned to nature after its use. Conversely, in agriculture, the water used for livestock, and especially for irrigation, will never be returned.

20% of distributed water lost each year

Due to the dilapidated state of the network, and leaks… In other words, for every five liters of water distributed, one liter of water goes back into the natural environment without passing through the consumer. On the scale of France, this represents 1 billion cubic meters of water wasted each year, or the equivalent of 300,000 Olympic swimming pools. However, the performance of the distribution network varies according to the communities. In Paris, for example, the yield is around 90%.

0.6% of wastewater is reused

In 2019, the Water Foundation estimated that 0.6% of the volumes of wastewater reused in France, instead of being discharged into the waterways at the end of urban wastewater treatment plants. With only one authorized destination: the watering of golf courses and agricultural irrigation.

This rate of reuse is one of the lowest in Europe, compared for example to the 8% of “reuse” (as we say in the jargon) in Italy, 14% in Spain, or 90% in Israel. In these countries, the reuse of wastewater can be used for agricultural irrigation, urban cleaning, or even for watering green spaces… According to estimates, if we increased to 10% to 15 or 20% of the needs of the agricultural world.

148 liters of water per day per inhabitant

Each French person consumes an average of 148 liters of water per day, or 123 m3 per year for a household. This is 39% less than Italy but 14% more than Spain, and 21% more than Germany. According to the Water Information Center, approximately 93% of the water used in French homes is dedicated to hygiene – showers, flushing toilets or washing machines – and 7% to food. Among the main sources of expenditure: car washing, which uses an average of 200 liters of water, but also the shower which consumes about 50 liters and the washing machine with 60 liters.

At the national level, this average hides significant geographical disparities, with very high consumption in the South-East, due to a drier climate and more swimming pools. Depending on the price of water, consumption can also vary: in the north-west of France, where water is expensive, consumption is lower.

67% of French people drink tap water daily

This is the result of a survey dating from 2020, carried out on behalf of the Water Information Center. During this survey, 66% of French people also said they feared running out of water in the future.

€516 annual water bill

This figure, provided by the Observatory of water and sanitation services, corresponds to an average per household for drinking water and collective sanitation in 2020. Depending on the municipality, the prices can however go from simple to double . According to the Selectra comparator, the price of water per cubic meter reaches €3.05 in Tours (Indre-et-Loire) but climbs to €4.50 in Hennebont (Morbihan), or even €6.53 in Yport (Seine). -Maritime).

7.3% of agricultural land is irrigated

This percentage may seem relatively low, but it has been steadily increasing in recent years (+ 14% in ten years according to France nature environment), which contributes to tensions around the agricultural use of water, which represents, as we recall, , 45% of the country’s water consumption.

Among the crops that consume the most water are oilseeds, but also maize, which needs a lot of water in the summer periods when it produces little.

– 14% renewable water resources since 1990

We call the renewable water resource what is provided by rainwater which does not return to the atmosphere due to evapotranspiration, supplemented by the contribution of rivers.

Between the periods 1990-2001 and 2002-2018, this renewable water resource decreased by 14% to reach 197 billion cubic meters per year. In question, the decrease in precipitation, but also the increase in the phenomenon of evapotranspiration linked to global warming (+ 76% in summer since 1959).

More than 30% of the territory affected by water restrictions each year

This figure represents an average over the period 2017-2020. During the summer of 2022, a year of exceptional drought, almost all departments were subject to water and irrigation restriction measures. They were 95 out of 96 at the end of August, according to the government site Propluvia.

Currently, four departments are still on alert: Ain, Bouches-du-Rhône, Pyrénées-Orientales and Var.

21.3% of waterways dried up in 2022

For ten years, this share has been constantly increasing, with very significant variations depending on the year. In 2012, 1,515 rivers dried up between May and September, compared to 535 in 2014, 2,393 in 2017, and 3,438 in 2022, a historic record.

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