Showers turned off on French beaches to save water

If the next time you are at the beach you emerge from the sea to find that the shower is not working, it might not be broken. 

With drought conditions persevering across the country, some seaside towns have taken the decision to shut off public beach showers in an attempt to reduce water consumption. 

In Courseulles-sur-Mer in Calvados, for example, the mairie announced in early August that water supplies to several beach showers would be prohibited. The western part of Calvados has since moved to the highest ‘crise’ level of drought restrictions 

Further north, the mayor of Le Portel in Pas-de-Calais also decided to shut the town's beach showers after the Boulonnais water basin entered ‘alerte renforcée’. Mayor Maxime Leprêtre said “preserving our water resources is a priority. Every action counts in preserving this essential resource.”

However, the measure is not universal. In fact, in Antibes-Juan-les-Pins, the municipality has opposed the closure of its beach showers despite the drought restrictions affecting the Alpes-Maritimes. “That’s not where we should be looking for savings,” Eric Duplay, deputy mayor, said, according to France 2.

He pointed out public-health reasons for keeping them running, claiming people need to rinse off salt and potential germs after swimming. 

The closures are linked to France's drought system, under which prefects can introduce restrictions when water resources become depleted. 

France has four main drought levels: vigilance, alerte, alerte renforcée and crise.

At vigilance level, there are no mandatory restrictions, but residents and businesses are encouraged to reduce their water consumption.

At alerte level, restrictions begin to apply to certain uses of water.

Then, alerte renforcée brings tighter limits, while at the highest level, crise, restrictions are imposed more broadly in order to preserve water supplies for essential uses.

The precise measures can vary depending on the local water resource and the prefectural order in force. This means that a beach in one part of France can still have functioning showers while another, sometimes only a short distance away, has turned them off.

According to the government's VigiEau monitoring system, as of August 26, 79 departments are at crise level, while 13 are at alerte renforcée, four at alerte and three at vigilance. Two departments have no restrictions displayed. 

You can see which drought level your department is at by consulting the VigiEau website. 

The situation has also been affecting access to drinking water in some areas. Around 40,000 people were reported to have experienced tap-water outages earlier this month, while supplies for around 550,000 residents were considered under strain. 

Additionally, the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM), said 92% of groundwater monitoring sites recorded falling levels on August 15, while 64% were below their usual level for this point in the year. 

When soils become very dry, they can struggle to absorb large amounts of rainwater when it eventually arrives. This means intense rainfall can cause flooding without necessarily providing the sustained recharge needed to replenish underground reserves. 

That was seen during storms across parts of southern and south-eastern France on August 20, when some areas received several weeks' or even a month's worth of rain within just a few hours, triggering flash flooding.