Agroecology favours the resilience of agricultural systems. Yet it is being embraced to varying extents by France, Germany and other Member States. Sustainable water management at territorial level is key, as shown by this comparison of approaches in France and Germany. Second in a three-part policy analysis for the Rural Resilience project by Marie-Lise Breure-Montagne.
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On the same day the European Parliament agreed to loosen the rules around the use of new genetic technologies in plant breeding, an article in Nature warned of rapid groundwater decline in many of the world’s aquifer systems in recent decades.
Climate change is here. Genomic techniques, however “new” they may be, do not hold water, as explained in part 1 of this series. Aquifers declining in other parts of the world (Figure 1) will put pressure on water in European territories, exporters of agricultural products.
In this second part, we will look at strategic plans for water management in France and Germany. It’s an issue that brings to light a number of challenges, including the urgent need to make a success of the agroecological transition.
Water abstraction for irrigation could be halved by 2050
It’s achievable – with a total transformation of our agricultural production systems. In France, at least – according to the Afterres 2050 scenario by Solagro (see part 1).
Portugal is on its knees after 10 years of continuous drought: from February, the Portuguese government will be limiting water consumption, with cuts of around 25% for agriculture and 15% for urban users, including households and the tourist industry. 20% of the country is affected.
Meanwhile the French government has opened the floodgates to irrigation, as part of its package of ‘simplification’ measures announced in response to farmer protests in the parched south west of France in January.
Yet bottomless irrigation is not an inevitability. Research points to the potential to reduce water abstraction for irrigation in drought conditions, using techniques such as under-sowing (see the 2019 annual report of the French departmental council for food, agriculture and rural areas – CGAAER). Maize, if planted under a legume cover crop, may require up to 30% less irrigation. Substitution by sorghum is cited as an interesting alternative to maize in situations of water restrictions, particularly in south-western France (Agrosites Maisadour; CGAAER 2019 report). According to the French Office for Biodiversity: “Without irrigation, sorghum gives a better yield than maize. With irrigation, sorghum only gives a better margin if the maize yield is less than 11T/ha.” Given the conflicts over water use, low maize yields seem to be inevitable.
Does saving water concern Germany as much as France?
If we look at the figures for available and allocated water resources (Figures 2a and 2b – OECD), we can see that the situations of France and Germany, in terms of overall volume, are comparable. Another useful element in understanding these countries is the way in which drought is offset by winter rainfall (Figure 3 – EDO: European Drought Observatory, January 2024). This mapping at the most favourable time in recent years should not obscure the fact that, with persistent drought in the east, Germany is now experiencing problems hitherto reserved for Mediterranean countries. River traffic disrupted or even interrupted on the Rhine due to lack of water, forest fires in Berlin in the summer of 2022. Much of Germany, including the south-east of the country and the Czech border, is in a state of ‘extreme drought’ or ‘exceptional drought’, according to the UFZ Institute for Environmental Research.
In France, the EDO map shows only a small southern fringe still in chronic drought. Nonetheless, in 2022, 50% of France was affected by emergency water restrictions.
“France has a quantitatively high level of renewable [water] resources compared with other European countries, but the size of its population and the diversity of uses to which it puts water (agriculture, tourism, hydropower and nuclear energy, domestic and industrial uses, etc.) mean that it has to draw heavily on water resources and that the available reserve per inhabitant is comparable to that in Germany, the United Kingdom or Spain” (Cour des Comptes, July 2023).
Water management – at municipal level or by catchment area?
In terms of regional management of the local water cycle as well as the overall water cycle, what are the advantages of thinking in terms of (sub-)catchment areas, as in France and in Germany’s Ruhr region?
When the concept of water agencies was being developed in France in the early 1960s, their initiators visited the Ruhr for inspiration:
“In the Ruhr mining region at the end of the 19th century, the coal and steel industries joined forces with the towns and other industries dependent on river power to store water for drinking and to dispose of wastewater. They obtained from the imperial government the transformation of voluntary associations into compulsory institutions, [with] fees to finance collective investments, all carried out by the famous Genossenschaften, which are cooperatives for catchment areas […]. There are now 11 of them, providing a practical illustration of what the principle of subsidiarity means in Germany: they are necessary in the Ruhrgebiet and exist only in that region” (source).
This is management of a common good at a regional level.
In the other Länder, water management has remained municipal or state-run: “In Germany, wastewater charges (Abwasserabgaben) are paid by cities to the Länder, which are then free to pass them on to consumers [farmers, industrialists, other users of wastewater services, etc.] or to citizens, and to make their own decisions” (source).
While the initial idea was taken from Germany, the French model of water agencies has drifted over the decades into the typical French waters of unequal charges and democratic deficit: “From 1974 onwards, the charges [the income of the water agencies] were paid by the inhabitants via their water bills, but the latter were only indirectly represented on the catchment area committees; it was their elected representatives [as the authorities responsible for the public services in question] who sat and voted on the amount of the said charges… It is this change that is really behind the fact that by the end of the 1990s, household users were paying more than 4/5 of the total” (source).
Since 1964 France has had six water agencies: one for each broad catchment area. In 2000, France served as a model for the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), which introduced the concept of river basin districts, grouping together rivers and aquatic environments.
As such, the main criticism levelled at the WFD at that time can be considered to apply to the French model: “[Despite its objective of economic rationalisation], the Water Framework Directive tends to err twice on the side of omission: on the one hand, it is high time that it took an interest in the question of water quantities and not just qualities; on the other hand, an interpretation of the notion of cost recovery solely on a sector-by-sector basis risks producing only short-sighted assessments”. This is to forget that in the summer, in large parts of France, agriculture (especially conventional maize) accounts for 90% of water consumption. It also means overlooking the societal and not just monetary value of agriculture (which is itself largely undervalued): if we make too many economic assessments, we could end up recommending that we import all our food so that we can continue to produce energy!
Developing and defining rules for water use conflicts (between agriculture, tourism, cities & other domestic uses, industries including nuclear), will be one of the issues of the century.
Lack of ambition at national level
What initiatives can be taken at national level to better manage water resources?
In March 2023 the German government adopted a water plan to guarantee the drinking water supply by 2050, in the face of climate change. While claiming the supply is currently “secure”, Germany aims to make more efficient use of water, in particular through the use of financial instruments. To prevent water shortages, the construction of a network of interregional drinking water pipelines is under discussion: “enabling more water to be brought from the wetter regions of Germany to the drier areas”. With mainly municipal water management in Germany, and the principle of supplying water as close as possible to where people live, the regions have (so far…) regulated their own water supply. “Interconnections and long-distance pipelines will be needed to compensate for regional differences in water availability […]. In future, regional differences may also require supra-regional interconnected networks and long-distance pipelines in order to supply Germany with water in a uniform manner. The Federal Environment Ministry, in collaboration with the federal states, will determine the need for such supra-regional and national water supplies” (source). This ‘pipe technology’ approach is often more expensive than other solutions, and with a bias towards the local water cycle (kleiner Wasserkreislauf) – rather than the overall water cycle (großer Wasserkreislauf), which is a more sustainable way to look at water supply, in clouds and in groundwater). (See figure 4 for key factors in the water cycle).
Also in March 2023, the French government presented its own, rather unambitious, water plan. The objective to reduce water use by 10% across all sectors by 2030 is disappointing, when management at the level of river basin districts allows for breakdown of usage by sector. Meanwhile its emergency plan to avoid drinking water cuts as much as possible in the summer (the ultimate in foresight), announced at a press conference on the shores of Serre Ponçon lake, sends out the message that major hydraulic engineering works are still the way to go when it comes to water shortages.
France’s six water agencies are sometimes described as ‘states within the state’. Despite criticism from the Cour des Comptes (office of auditors), they remain the guardians of the water supply, and are well able to plead their case. This is particularly true for the Adour Garonne Agency, which holds sway over the highly irrigated south-west of the country, and has now joined forces with the Occitanie region in a partnership agreement called “Entente Eau“. The partnership puts out calls for projects to address, among other issues, water management in agriculture by means of “agroecological transition, upgrading of existing facilities, and reduction of water abstraction for livestock farming, for example”.
These water agencies can also issue long-term warnings: “The Adour-Garonne catchment area is facing major quantitative challenges in terms of water supply. The current deficit between needs and supply is estimated at 200 to 250 million m3 for the Adour-Garonne catchment area overall. Without changes to current use, and taking into account the expected impacts of climate change, this deficit is likely to rise to 1 or even 1.2 billion m3 by 2050.” These figures illustrate just how urgent it is to place agroecology at the heart of the transformation of the agricultural model.
Intermediate conclusion
Technological innovations… or structural innovations in water management and the redesign of agricultural production systems?
As discussed in part one of this series, crop specialists maintain that making the most of genetics will involve both technological innovations and innovations in agronomy and agroecology.
These experts also explain that research should be less analytical and more systemic, focusing on issues of territorial water management – as set out in this second part of the series.
This article has been translated and condensed.
The final installation of this three-part policy analysis will explore the role of diversification and agroecology in water management.
More on Rural Resilience
Rural Resilience | Water, Diversification and Agroecology – Part 1
Water as a Common Good .. and climate risks, a common destiny – Part 2/2
Islands of Resilience Part 2: Land Planning and Biodiversity
Marburg Gathering | Building Bridges for Future-Proof Food Systems
