COLUMN
Woody’s worries
Ruth Wood worries about future shortages of water, energy and headaches
W
e have a well on our land in France. At least I think it’s a well.
That’s what it says on the map. But it’s obscured by a corrugated steel cover and such an abundance of overgrowth that on the rare occasions I notice it, I feel compelled to say: “Well, well, well. Water do we have here then?” The only time we really think
about the well is when we’re talking about ‘Plan A’ – our dream of semi-retiring to our holiday home in Brittany and being more self-suffi cient. Usually, it’s when my husband Jon is in climate change- prepping mode, expounding on how we will support ourselves in the event of an energy crisis on the eggs that will come from the hens that we will feed on the vegetable peelings that we’ve carefully grown for a year-round crop, preserving bumper September harvests to get us through the scarcer months thanks to the wood that we’ve chopped to fuel the stove that boils the water in which we will sterilise the Kilner jars secured from neighbours in return for honey from our bees. “What if people steal our
chickens?” I ask. This sends Jon down a dark
path that I won’t go into right now. But eventually he swerves back to brighter thoughts such as growing fl ax to make linen clothes following instructions we once saw on YouTube. Personally, I think there are already enough clothes in the universe to see humanity through to the end of time, and I point this out to my husband. “Yes, but you won’t have the petrol to go and pick
them up,” he retorts, irritated by my defeatist vision of the apocalypse. Although we’ll have to make
do, mend and Ray Mears it, Jon broaches the idea of buying a lifetime supply of some things in advance to get us through the tough times ahead. He suggests toothpaste, whiskey and Anadin Extra. I can’t really think beyond coff ee, but I suppose there’s caff eine in that brand of headache tablets, so that should cover all bases. “And if all else fails, at least we have the well,” says Jon.
WATER PREDICAMENT Well, yes. The well. This is where I start to engage with the conversation because, while I
fi nd it hard to visualise a world without YouTube, I fi nd it a doddle to visualise a world with water shortages. We already live in that world! Fred Pearce’s outstanding
book When the rivers run dry was my rude awakening to the growing global water crisis. He wrote it way back in 2006 and let’s just say his observations on Gaza look painfully prescient now. Last summer, a third of
Europe was aff ected by drought and dozens of French communes relied on daily water tanker deliveries or bottled water. After France’s worst drought on record in 2022, the situation worsened in 2023, with groundwater levels below their monthly average in three- quarters of the country. Drought conditions persist
in 2024 and it was recently reported that some 10 million homes have cracks in their outer walls due to clay soils shrinking in exceptionally dry weather and then rapidly swelling after rainfall. Brittany is spared the worst
of these extremes, but a wildfi re we spotted from Carnac beach one hot day in 2022 was a reminder of how dry it can get in the summer.
“You could save nearly 4,000 litres of water just by not eating a 250g piece of steak – funnily enough, the French government website doesn’t mention this”
Watching wildfi res from the beach With water restrictions now
a common occurrence, the French government launched the website
VigiEau.gouv.fr last year so that you can look up your commune and fi nd out what the latest rules are. The website also has advice on cutting water consumption, although I would argue that this advice is a drop in the ocean. I mean, yes, you could save 100 litres of water by having a shower instead of a bath. But you could save nearly FOUR THOUSAND litres simply by not eating a 250g piece of steak. Funnily enough, the French government does not mention this.
WATER HYPOCRITE Not that I can talk. I’m currently downing my third coff ee of the day, ignoring the fact that it takes 140 litres of water to grow, process and transport the beans for a single cup. For dinner tonight, we’ll probably have rice, so that’s another 1,500 litres of water or more down the drain. I tell myself things will be
diff erent, though, if and when we move to Brittany. We’ll try our hand at drought-friendly crops like millet and oats. We’ll do no-till growing methods and mulches to keep the topsoil healthy and moist. We’ll harvest rainwater in butts to use on the land. And maybe, just maybe we’ll cut back on the coff ee. If everything goes to Plan
There’s a well on Ruth’s land – at least she thinks it’s in there somewhere 104 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: May/June 2024
A we won’t need to use the well. If it doesn’t, then at least we’ll have a lifetime supply of Anadin Extra. ■
© RUTH WOOD
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