Nestle faces mineral water problems in drought-hit France
Global food and beverage giant Nestle said Thursday that it would stop extracting from two mineral water wells in eastern France due to drought and increasingly unpredictable weather conditions.
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The group's mineral water subsidiary, Nestle Waters, which owns brands such as Vittel and Perrier, said it had suspended operations at two wells used to produce its Hepar water in the Vosges region of eastern France.
Another four wells will continue to be used for the brand, which is coveted for its high levels of magnesium.
"Like the whole of the industry, Nestle Waters faces worsening climatic conditions, with more intense and frequent events, such as regular droughts followed by heavy rain, which affect operating conditions at some wells on its site in the Vosges," the group told French news agency AFP.
Shallow wells
The two Hepar wells were identified as "particularly vulnerable" because of their shallow depth which means it is "very difficult to maintain the stability of the essential characteristics of a natural mineral water."
"If they partially suspend their production, it is simply that there is not enough water," Bernard Schmitt, spokesperson for the citizen collective Eau 88 told FranceInfo.
His group has been challenging the local authorities over water withdrawals granted to Nestle Waters for years.
For the Hépar brand, the group can extract up to 800,000 cubic meters per year from the underground wells.
"We are coming to the end! For 30 years, we have known that this water table is in very poor condition. We can clearly see that the bottled water industry is threatened by the drought that will strike in the coming years," Schmitt said.
Nestle Waters employs nearly 600 people in Vittel. The city takes a commission on natural mineral waters of around €4 million per year.
Emergency water restrictions
France as a whole saw 32 days without significant rainfall in January and February, a winter drought that followed record heat last summer that saw emergency water measures put in place for most of the country.
An estimated 75 percent of French groundwater sources were at moderately low or very low levels in April, according to the state-run French Geological Survey (BRGM).
Water restrictions are currently in place for 20 out of 96 departments on the mainland, with three judged to be in crisis in the southeast of the country.
Other French mineral waters are also affected by the increasing scarcity of water, including the famed Volvic brand which is extracted from the formerly volcanic hills of central France.
Authorities in the Puy-de-Dome area widened water restrictions on Tuesday this week.
The owner of Volvic, French multinational Danone, is set to decrease its monthly water extraction by five percent in May and June, the company told AFP.
Sale of pools banned
In a separate development, Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu on Friday announced that the sale of above-ground swimming pools will be banned in the southwestern Pyrénées-Orientales department from next week.
The announcement comes at a time when crisis measures, including new water restrictions, are due to come into force on 10 May due to an exceptional drought.
"It's not a decision of the government, it's the reality of nature and the situation we are in, we have to get used to the idea that global warming is now," Béchu said.
(with AFP)
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