Guadeloupe, Martinique: From dry season to drought  · Global Voices
Fabienne Flessel

As some posts on GV have shown recently [Eng], the Caribbean has been going through a severe drought for the past few weeks.
In the French West Indies, bloggers react to this natural disaster which influences their everyday life and affects even politics.
From January to early June, the French West Indies are in “Carême” – French for the Catholic Lent (a period of fasting and deprivation).  The term extends to a season of the year when the rain level is very low and the temperatures very high, a time notorious for the chronic lack of water and extreme dryness of the ground.
In Martinique, Bondamanjak  announces the peak of “Carême” with poetry [Fr]:
Le carême a mis son costume de saison blanche et sèche en Martinique.
…but doesn't hide the sizzling reality of the temperatures:
On note du 34°c dans la journée et … 29°C à 19h.
Bondamanjak gives further examples of the disastrous consequences of this drought on the environment, when he shares an account of the surprise that Martinicans had this past weekend, when they witnessed a fire near the dome of the island's volcano, la Montagne Pelée:
Les feux de brousailles se multiplient et depuis dimanche les pentes de la Montagne Pelée, le  plus haut sommet de l'île, sont léchées par des flammmes. Les pompiers s'affèrent pour sécuriser les habitations mais ne peuvent rien faire pour circonscrire l'incendie. Il faudrait un canadair mais il n'y en a pas dans le département.
This situation has raised serious concerns among the Martinican population, prompting the Volcano and Earthquake Observatory of Martinique (OVSM) to release a report on Tuesday, in order to assuage people's worries. It was republished here by Montray Kreyol [Fr]:
Depuis dimanche, un incendie s’est déclaré dans la zone de la coulée de la Rivière Claire, sur le flanc sud-ouest de la montagne Pelée. Entre dimanche soir et lundi soir, le feu s’est propagé vers les hauteurs jusqu’aux dômes, et ce matin, mardi 9 mars, des fumées se dégagent par endroit des zones calcinées.
Ce feu et les fumées associées n’ont aucun lien avec une quelconque activité volcanique.
The fire and the related smoke were not caused by the volcano's activity.
Back in October 2009, the annual “Water Days” were organized in Guadeloupe, in order to raise awareness on the importance of planning and managing water resources on the island. Now, Martinican Montray Kréyol questions this same issue in a post entitled: “About the water shortage” [Fr]. The blogger concludes that successful management of water resources can only be the result of a strong political commitment.
And speaking of politics, in Guadeloupe, ecological blogger and political figure Harry Durimel, who is campaigning for the upcoming regional elections (March 14th and 21st), wrote a post entitled “the Blue Gold or how to save water” [Fr], in which he lists all the tips to save water at home and outside, in this period of water shortage.
Guadeloupeans have been dealing with this difficult situation in their everyday lives, explained here [Fr] by blogger Géraldine en Guadeloupe, who is rejoicing over the first drops of rain in a month:
Youpi, il a plu : ça fait pratiquement plus d'un mois que nous n'avons pas eu de pluies conséquentes. Ajoutez à ça que la saison des pluies cette année a été particulièrement sèche et vous avez une Guadeloupe grillée par le soleil. La terre craque, les plantes et pelouses sont jaunes et les escargots et grenouilles ont disparues. Du coup, on commence à parler de restrictions :
- interdiction d'arroser les pelouses
– ne laver les voitures que dans les stations de lavage
– ne pas remplir les piscines
…
On commence à craindre des coupures tournantes sur le réseau.
-it is forbidden to water the lawns
-to wash the cars in the car washes
-to fill up the swimming-pools
….
We are now fearing rolling water cuts on the supply network.