The village of Durban-Corbières, in the department hard hit by the drought of Aude, continues to be supplied with drinking water by tanker truck, three months after the introduction of restrictive measures including turning off the tap for several hours per day, its mayor said on Tuesday.
These daily outages, initially between 2 p.m. and 6 a.m., were shortened in mid-September during the harvest “so that people can still, when returning from the vineyard, do a little washing.” city councilor Alain Laborde told AFP, and they only start from 5 or 6 p.m.
“We have the impression that in this part of Corbières, the rain does not want to fall (…) It is likely to last until the end of the year,” he lamented, confirming information from the daily Libération.
Supply by tanker truck, at the rate of three to four deliveries of 30 cubic meters per day, continues as it has throughout the summer, he said. The cost of the operation already amounts to “more than 140,000 euros”, a bill for which the mayor has requested state aid.
The department of Aude, like its neighbor in the Pyrénées-Orientales, is suffering from a prolonged drought which has partly emptied the water tables and the arrival of autumn has not yet helped to resolve the situation.
“There was some rain last week, 12 mm fell during the night. You understand that 12 mm is good for nature, it is good for the garden, but that is not what will fill the groundwater”, underlined Mr. Laborde.
The village also has a nursing home where water cuts have subjected the caregivers “to a somewhat harsher regime, since they had to carry water, wash the toilets with cold water”, detailed the mayor.
