No more baths and ice buckets for tourists: faced with drought, hotels and restaurants in the P.-O. tighten the screw

La sécheresse qui perdure dans les Pyrénées-Orientales a conduit le département à prendre des mesures exceptionnelles. ILLUSTRATION MIDI LIBRE

Tourist establishments in the department, hit for two years by a wave of drought, will sign a charter of commitment to save water. Among the most notable measures, the ban on taking baths or using ice buckets.

Faced with the drought which has been affecting the Pyrénées-Orientales for two years now, the department's hoteliers-restaurateurs are committed to increasing initiatives to save water.

An official charter, presented this Tuesday, April 9, was concluded between the Union of Trades in the Hotel Industry (Umih) and the prefecture. It contains around thirty short and medium term commitments. Among the most symbolic: the ban on hotel guests taking baths by removing the stoppers from the bathtubs. These are also doomed to disappear, specifies Brice Sannac, the president of Umih 66 to Actu Perpignan.

Covered swimming pools to limit evaporation

It is also expected that restaurants will remove ice buckets for wine, champagne and water bottles. They will be replaced by cooling plates. Furthermore, the swimming pools will be systematically covered at night to limit evaporation.

"This commitment is a bit like the tree that hides the forest. The charter is not only a charter on water, but on a complete environmental commitment of our economy", specifies Brice Sannac in the columns of our colleagues.

In the longer term, the Occitanie region and the State are preparing to relaunch the extension of the Aqua Domitia project, aimed at transporting water from the Rhône to in the Pyrénées-Orientales.