Paris Aug 12 (BUS): Once upon a time, a river ran through it. Now, white dust and thousands of dead fish cover the wide moat that flows amid rows of trees in France’s Burgundy region in what used to be the River Thiel in the village of Lux.
From dry and cracked reservoirs in Spain to falling water levels on major arteries such as the Danube, Rhine and Po, nearly half of the European continent has been hit by an unprecedented drought. The Associated Press (AP) has reported that it harms farm economies, imposes water restrictions, causes wildfires and threatens aquatic species.
There has been no heavy rain for nearly two months in western, central and southern Europe. In usually rainy Britain, the government officially declared a drought in southern and central England on Friday amid one of the hottest and driest summers on record.
Europe’s drought is expected to continue in what experts say could be the worst drought in 500 years.
Climate change is exacerbating conditions as higher temperatures speed up evaporation, thirsty plants take in more moisture and less snowfall in winter limits the supply of fresh water available for irrigation in summer. Europe is not alone in the crisis, as drought conditions have also been reported in East Africa, the western United States and northern Mexico.
Walking the 15-meter (50-foot)-wide river bed in Lux, Jean-Philippe Coasne, chief technician at the local Federation of Fishing and Aquatic Environmental Conservation, listed the species of fish that had died in Teal.
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. On average, it flows around 8000 liters (2,100 gallons) per second. …and now, zero liters.”
In upstream areas, some trout and other freshwater species can shelter in pools via fish ladders. But such systems are not available everywhere.
Without rain, the river would continue to empty. And yes, all fish will die. “They’re trapped upstream and downstream, and there’s no water coming in, so the oxygen level will continue to drop as the volume (of the water) decreases,” Couasné said. “These are species that will gradually disappear.”
Diverting fish to other rivers will not help because those waterways are also affected by drought, said Jean-Pierre Sonvico, regional president of the union.
“Yeah, it’s dramatic because what can we do? Nothing.”
The European Commission’s Joint Research Center warned this week that drought conditions will worsen and are likely to affect 47% of the continent.
And the drought in 2018 was so severe that there have been no similar events in the last 500 years, “but this year, I think, really worse,” said Andrea Torretti, a senior researcher at the European Drought Observatory.
Over the next three months, Touretti said, “we continue to see a very high risk of drought conditions in western and central Europe, as well as the UK.”
The current situation is the result of long periods of dry weather caused by changes in global weather systems, said meteorologist Peter Hoffmann of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research near Berlin.
“It’s only in the summer that we feel it the most,” he said. “But in reality, droughts build up throughout the year.”
He said climate change has reduced temperature differences between regions, reducing the forces that drive the jet stream, which usually brings wet Atlantic weather to Europe.
A weaker or unstable jet stream can bring unusually hot air into Europe from North Africa, resulting in long periods of heat. The reverse is also true, when the polar vortex of cold air from the Arctic causes it to freeze far south of where it normally reaches.
Hoffman said observations in recent years have all been at the high end of what current climate models predict.
Drought has caused some European countries to impose restrictions on water use, and shipping is at risk on the Rhine and Danube.
The Rhine River, Germany’s largest waterway, may reach critical low levels in the coming days. Water levels near the town of Kaup are expected to drop to 35 cm (14 inches) by Tuesday, said Bastian Klein of the German Federal Institute of Hydrology. He said that only small or specially designed ships could sail in such conditions.
“Industries that depend on inland shipping and transport on the Rhine have of course been affected, as there is less transport capacity for raw materials or finished products,” Klein said.
On the Danube, authorities in Serbia began dredging to keep ships moving.
In neighboring Hungary, large parts of Velence Lake near Budapest have turned into patches of dry mud, ashore for small boats. Aeration and water circulation equipment has been installed to protect wildlife, but the water quality has deteriorated. A ban on swimming at a beach has been imposed on weekends.
Stretches of the Po River, Italy’s longest river, are so low that barges and boats that sank decades ago have come back to the surface.
The drought also affected England, which last month had its driest July since 1935, according to the Met Office’s Met Office. The lack of rain has depleted reservoirs, rivers, and groundwater, leaving grasslands brown and dry.
Millions in the UK have already been banned from watering lawns and gardens under the regional “hosing ban”, and another 15 million around London will soon face such a ban.
The drought is also affecting farmers in the UK, who are facing running out of irrigation water and having to use winter fodder for animals due to a lack of grass. The Rivers Trust said England’s chalk streams – which allow underground springs to spread through the spongy layer of rock – are drying up, endangering aquatic wildlife such as salmon and trout.
Even countries like Spain and Portugal, which used to work for long periods without rain, have seen dire consequences. In Spain’s Andalusia, some avocado growers have had to sacrifice hundreds of trees to save others from wilting as the Vinuela reservoir in Málaga province has fallen to just 13% of its capacity.
Some European farmers use tap water for their livestock when ponds and streams are dry, using up to 100 liters (26 gallons) per day per cow.
In the naturally green Burgundy region, home to the upstream of the Seine in Paris, the grass has turned yellowish-brown, and the tractors are creating huge clouds of dust.
Baptiste Coulson, owner of dairy cows and growers of fodder crops in Molloy village, said his cattle are suffering from drought, with reduced quality and quantity of their milk. The 31-year-old head of the local Young Farmers Guild said he was forced to dive into his winter forage in August.
“That’s the biggest concern,” Coulson said.
Corn production in the European Union is expected to be less than 12.5 million tons last year, and sunflower production is expected to fall by 1.6 million tons, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Coulson expects at least a 30% reduction in corn yields, a major problem for feeding his cows.
“We know we will have to buy food…so that the cows can continue to produce milk,” he said. “From an economic point of view, the cost will be high.”
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