Conference debate: The Durance – rivers sick of humans? Is a renaturation possible?

The Durance : a “unnatural” river

We are more than 3 million people who depend on it for our greatest comfort (extraction of aggregates, irrigation, drilling for drinking water, cooling of the nuclear reactors of Cadarache, etc.), for this reason, humans have made it the most developed river in France with kilometers of infrastructures (weirs, dams, reservoirs, bridges, roads and highways, dwellings, warehouses, factories, etc.) per one kilometer of river

Humans put considerable pressure on rivers by exploiting them. It is 90% of the water of the Durance which is diverted to produce electricity for the most part.

Can we keep on in that way taken more than 5 centuries ago and accentuated these last 70 years? Another way of looking at things, another way of behaving with regard to our rivers and in particular the Durance, is conceivable. We are going to debate this, for this we will propose to you beforehand, some lines of thought, notably from the presentations of our guest Roberto Epple (hydrobiologist, founding president of the European Rivers Network (ERN), president of SOS Loire Vivante) but also from the members of our association (SOS Durance Vivante).

For those who wish to know more, you can already visit our website (French only)

Otherwise, we will meet on Saturday, February 26th in Manosque, salle des tilleuls 14h30. We will comply with the sanitary obligations of the moment.