How do French authorities check and enforce drought restrictions?

Reader Question: My commune is facing drought warnings but the heatwaves mean my pool has evaporated quickly. If I top it up, who is going to check that I have broken any rules, and how would they find out? 

While the implementation of drought alerts and regulations are controlled by local authorities it is not the police or gendarmes who are in charge of checking that they are followed. 

Responsibility lies with France’s environmental police, working under the OFB (Office français de la biodiversité). 

These officers patrol the country searching for rule-breakers using visual evidence such as greener lawns or a pool that has more water in than neighbouring properties, which can indicate water has been used illegally in spite of regulations in the commune.

Alongside patrols to find users caught in the act or with markedly different conditions to their neighbours, the OFB may respond to tip-offs about illegal water usage at a property.

Officers will then talk to property owners about the infringements. 

In most cases, individuals are warned of the current regulations and how they have broken them, for example by topping up a swimming pool.

However, authorities have the power to issue fines to rule-breakers, reaching up to €1,500 rising to €3,000 for repeat offenders who commit offences such as filling up swimming pools.

In addition to environmental police, authorities in the DDT (Directions Départementales des Territoires) are also authorised to check locals are complying with water regulations. 

Again however, they are more likely to inform people breaking rules about regulations than continuously hand out fines.

Difficult to confirm cases 

The matter can become more complicated as there are several exceptions to the rules. 

These can change depending on both the usage and origin of the water; in some places for example, tap water may be banned but usage of well-water be permitted.

They also change at commune level, meaning something authorised in one village may be banned in another even if they are in the same department.

When it comes to swimming pools, certain health measures also make it difficult. 

It is usually permitted to fill a swimming pool for the first time after construction as a health and safety measure, which is possible during all but the strictest drought alerts. 

When it comes to other rules, it often varies.

There can be some confusion over the difference between filling a swimming pool with water (remplissage) and topping up existing water levels (mise à niveau).

Generally, filling a pool (not for the first time) is banned at earlier drought levels (alerte and alerte renforcée), whereas topping up is often still permitted.

At the highest level (crise), topping up is usually also restricted, but there are some exceptions.

Topping up a pool to prevent the proliferation of mosquitoes is sometimes permitted even at crise level, a reason often given by owners of recently-replenished pools. 

It is difficult for authorities to disprove this as the reason a pool was topped up, and if given as an excuse by property owners, officers usually accept it.

Another potential reason for filling up a swimming pool even at the highest drought warning level is for security measures, such as to prevent a pool’s alarm from going off or ensuring an automatic pool cover works. 

However, this is all based on departmental and communal regulations.

The best way to check if rules apply in your area is to enter your address on the VigiEau website, find the rules for your area and look on the page for the corresponding decrees (arrêté de restriction and arrêté cadre préfectoral) given in the ‘Besoin de précision sur les restrictions ?’ section.

Once you have clicked on the decree, use your search function to look for key words such as remplissage, piscine or mise à niveau to find the exact rules (documents are usually a dozen or so pages long, so can be time-consuming to read through).

For example, topping up pools is authorised for both of the above cases in the Pyrénées-Orientales department, where there are several communes facing crisis alerts, due to a prefectural decree.

However, in the Lussat (Loiret) area, it is completely forbidden, with no exceptions for the above reasons.