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45.000 hectares flooded by the sea water
France
Friday 05 March 2010
10 % of the Charente-Maritime farmlands are flooded by the sea water.
The agriculture is severely touched by the devastating passage of the storm Xynthia, a wave of salt water which flooded more than 45.000 hectares.
In Charente-Maritime, " the situation is catastrophic, we estimate at 40.000 hectares the agricultural surfaces touched by the tidal wave ", that is approximately 10 % of the lands cultivated by the department, explains Dominique Rainteau, FDSEA Charente Maritime Manager.
"It will take time so that the water evacuates. The salt acts as a weed killer. The cultures are roasted and, the salt water returns the earth unfit for the culture ".
For 2 hours, the storm pushed the sea on 6 to 7 km inside lands. "We’ve never seen this before", underlines Jean-Philippe Bouin, of the FDSEA Vendée.
In other departments of regions Pays-de-Loire and Poitou-Charente, the damages are less important.
source FDSEA
