Salagou Lake: will additional volumes of water be mobilized ?

Water management discussed during a visit to the dam. Midi Free – JEROME MOUILLOT

Dans la salle des vannes du barrage. Midi Libre – JEROME MOUILLOT

Quelques visiteurs ont eu le privilège de pénétrer dans l’ouvrage. Midi Libre – JEROME MOUILLOT

A visit to the Salagou dam was organized a few days before World Water Day, this Friday March 22. The opportunity to take stock of the functions of the lake, a strategic tool for water management in Hérault.

"Today, I think that we could not build a lake of this size", estimates Christophe Morgo, vice-president of the department, delegate for the environment, in reference to the outcry that arises with each mega-basin project… But now, Salagou, a dashing fifty-year-old, is part of the landscape. "This lake is a bit of a source of pride. It also represents a very specific ecosystem and a life that has developed, for decades, on the 75 km" watershed, continues the’ elected. A biotope which is today part of the challenges while the search for a balance in the use of this blue gold between agriculture, tourism, local life, sporting activities… is the subject of debate* against a backdrop of global warming.

A balance between lake functions

Paradoxically, the Salagou, which was painfully impounded more than half a century ago, initially for agricultural purposes, has today become both ;nbsp;a tourist gem on the verge of obtaining the Grand Site label, but also an eminently strategic water management facility. "Little used by farmers at first, it is much more so now. It is also very popular with many tourists, and the people of Hérault, all year round, with a volume of quality water of almost 100 million m3. Water which is also used, in the summer, to supply the Hérault river for the drinking water needs of approximately 500,000 inhabitants. And it is also useful for limiting the flooding of the Hérault River", details Christophe Morgo, also president of the EPTB, the territorial public establishment of the Hérault river basin.

" We worry about the future

As the climate situation changes, agricultural demands and the needs of the river grow at the same time as the territory becomes aridified. In 2023, in certain coastal communities, "we had 210 mm, this corresponds to a desert climate. There was more rain in Algiers or Marrakech than in Sète or Mèze. For three years, we have seen a worrying drought with much less precipitation. In Salagou, in 2023, it is 420 mm, almost half of what it usually falls. We worry about the future, explains the elected official, specifying that the evaporation of the lake is estimated at 9M m3 per year.

Additional volumes of water?

Despite this, the reservoir "remains fairly stable, around 98 M of m3. We have made some projections and we can free up some additional volumes of water for agricultural needs, ecological continuity and drinking water needs, this is what we are currently working on. ;organize with users and state services so that this happens in good conditions", book by Christophe Morgo while discussions are underway within the framework of the Clé, Local Water Commission. As part of the 2018 Water Resources Management Plan, 3.5 million m3 have already been allocated to irrigation, drinking water and the environment. aquatic of the river. Volumes mobilized gradually, as irrigation projects are completed. According to Christophe Morgo, it would still be possible to plan for withdrawals of 1.5M additional m3 on Salagou. It remains to be seen, in a few weeks, what the results of ongoing negotiations at La Clé, the water parliament, will be.

Debates: the collective "Sauvons le Salagou" questions in particular the relevance of vine irrigation projects with regard to "a necessary adaptation to climate change" and calls for a diversification of agriculture. In addition, believing that "we are heading towards more and more frequent periods of drought", the collective fears that "The depletion of water resources could endanger the biodiversity of the lake and rivers upstream." I subscribe to read more